Sunday February 8, 2026
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The United States, US President Donald Trump has drawn widespread condemnation after posting an election conspiracy video on his Truth Social platform that briefly depicted former president Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as monkeys.
The one-minute video, shared on Thursday, repeated false claims that Dominion Voting Systems helped “steal” the 2020 presidential election from Trump. Near the end of the clip, the Obamas’ faces were superimposed on the bodies of monkeys for about a second, while the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” played in the background.
As of early Friday, the post had attracted thousands of likes on the platform.
The imagery quickly sparked outrage among prominent Democrats, commentators and social media users, many of whom described the post as racist and unbecoming of a sitting president.
The office of California Governor Gavin Newsom, a potential Democratic presidential contender in 2028 and a vocal Trump critic, reacted sharply on X.
“Disgusting behaviour by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now,” Newsom’s press office account posted.
Ben Rhodes, a former top national security adviser and close confidant of Barack Obama, also condemned the video.
“Let it haunt Trump and his racist followers that future Americans will embrace the Obamas as beloved figures while studying him as a stain on our history,” he wrote.
Obama remains the only Black president in American history and campaigned for Trump’s 2024 election opponent, Kamala Harris.
The controversy also reignited debates around Trump’s increasing use of hyper-realistic but fabricated visuals generated by artificial intelligence on his social media platforms, often portraying himself heroically while mocking his critics.
Last year, Trump posted an AI-generated video showing Obama being arrested in the Oval Office and later appearing behind bars in an orange jumpsuit. He also shared an AI clip of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries – who is Black – wearing a fake mustache and sombrero, an image Jeffries described as racist.
Several X users joined the criticism following the latest post.
An X user identified as African, @ali_naka, wrote: “When we told the Non-Thinkers in Kenyan that when Trump Insults Somalia, he is insulting an entire race, they thought we were imagining things. Obama has Kenyan Roots and this is what Trump thinks of him.”
The group Republicans Against Trump, @RpsAgainstTrump, posted: “Trump just posted a video on Truth Social that includes a racist image of Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys. There’s no bottom.”
Another user, Richard Woodruff, @frontlinekit, wrote: “The F*CKING President of the United States of America just casually posted that all Black Americans are monkeys to him.
“First he f**ks kids, then he shoots Americans in the street, now he calls the Obamas fucking monkeys. F*CK TRUMP. Do something TODAY, America!!!!”
Harry Sisson, @harryjsisson, also reacted, saying: “Trump posted a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys. Incredibly racist and disgusting. Beneath the office of the presidency, like everything he does. Every American must condemn this.”
Mohamad Safa, @mhdksafa, wrote: “Welcome to America where president gets away with racism! President Trump just posted a video of President Obama and his wife portraying Black people as monkeys! Racism in its ugliest form!
“Trump didn’t make America racist… He made the racists feel comfortable enough to show their racism in public.
“This type of speech, whether international or local, that fuels racism and hatred is unacceptable in our world today.
“Our world is not divided by race, color, gender, or religion. Our world is divided into wise people and fools. And fools divide themselves by race, color, gender, or religion.
“No one is born racist, they’re taught racism, stop teaching it. Stop pretending your racism is patriotic.”
The latest controversy comes amid criticism of Trump’s aggressive rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives since returning to the White House. One of his first actions in office was terminating federal DEI programmes, including related policies in the military.
The administration’s campaign against what Trump calls “woke” initiatives has also reportedly led to the removal of books addressing America’s history of racial discrimination from some military academy shelves.
Federal anti-discrimination policies in the United States emerged from the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, largely led by Black Americans seeking equality and justice after centuries of slavery and institutional racism.
(The New Diplomat)
