The White House has responded to growing criticism after former U.S. President Donald Trump shared an AI-generated video on his Truth Social platform that depicts former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.
The 62-second video focuses largely on renewed claims of voting machine irregularities during the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden. Near the end of the clip, the faces of the Obamas are briefly superimposed onto the bodies of dancing monkeys, a moment that sparked immediate backlash online.
Depictions of Black public figures as primates have long been associated with racist caricatures, and critics were quick to condemn the imagery. California Governor Gavin Newsom described the video as “disgusting behaviour,” calling on Republican leaders to denounce it. Political commentator Harry Sisson also criticised the post, saying it was “incredibly racist and beneath the office of the presidency.”
The group Republicans Against Trump echoed similar sentiments, stating that the video showed “there’s no bottom” to Trump’s conduct on social media.
Responding to the backlash, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the outrage in a statement shared with Newsweek. While she did not directly address accusations that the imagery echoed racist tropes, Leavitt said the clip was taken from an internet meme portraying Trump as the “King of the Jungle” and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King,” Leavitt said. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something that actually matters to the American public.”
Leavitt also referenced a longer version of the video originally posted in October, which shows several political figures portrayed as animals, including Vice President Kamala Harris, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and media personality Whoopi Goldberg.
The video shared by Trump was posted twice on Truth Social and included commentary from Phil Waldron, described as a cybersecurity expert, who alleged that multiple states paused vote counting simultaneously during the 2020 election. Waldron claimed that when counting resumed, there was a significant surge in votes for Biden, allegations that have previously been dismissed by election officials and courts.
This is not the first time Trump has shared controversial AI-generated content involving Obama. He previously posted a fabricated video depicting Obama being arrested in the Oval Office.
Trump’s social media activity has drawn repeated scrutiny over the years. Following the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, he was banned from Facebook and Twitter (now X), though his accounts were later reinstated. He launched Truth Social during the period of his suspension from major platforms.
The video continues to generate widespread debate online, with critics accusing Trump of promoting racist imagery, while the White House maintains that the backlash is exaggerated.
