00:00The White House deleted a video posted on President Trump's Truth Social that included
00:05a clip depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as apes.
00:10The roughly one minute video, which appeared on Trump's Truth Social account late February
00:155th, was mostly focused on claims of vote rigging in the 2020 election, when suddenly
00:20the AI-generated images of the Obamas as apes scrolls into frame while the song The Lion
00:26Sleeps Tonight plays in the background, before scrolling back to the previous video which
00:31restarts.
00:38White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt initially defended the post and accused critics of fomenting
00:43fake outrage.
00:45This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the king of the jungle and
00:50Democrats as characters from The Lion King.
00:52Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the
00:57American public, she said in a statement.
01:00Tim Scott, the highest ranking black Republican in Congress, as well as other GOP allies, chided
01:05the White House on X.
01:07Praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House.
01:11The President should remove it, he wrote.
01:14The President's post is wrong and incredibly offensive.
01:17Whether intentional or a mistake and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered,
01:22New York Rep Mike Lawler added.
01:24A White House official claims that a staffer had erroneously made the post and that it had
01:29been taken down.
01:31The offensive clip was from a longer video titled President Trump, King of the Jungle, posted
01:36in October of last year on X.
01:38The AI video also depicts prominent Democrats, including former President Joe Biden, Senate
01:43Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and California Governor Gavin Newsom, with their heads tastelessly
01:48superimposed on other animals.
01:50The X account behind the off-color meme also sparked controversy in October 2025 with another
01:56one of their AI videos depicting Trump dumping heaps of raw sewage on No King's protesters from
02:02a fighter jet.
02:03Trump also posted this clip to Truth Social.
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