Trump Shares AI Video Portraying the Obamas as Apes

President Donald Trump sparked renewed outrage this week after sharing a video on his Truth Social account that blended long-debunked 2020 election conspiracy theories with a brief AI-generated clip widely condemned as racially offensive.

The roughly 60-second video, posted without commentary, largely pushes false claims that voting machines in battleground states were manipulated to favor Joe Biden, allegations repeatedly rejected by courts, election officials, and Trump’s own former attorney general. But attention quickly shifted to a fleeting segment near the end of the clip.

For one to three seconds, an AI-generated animation appears showing former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama with their faces superimposed onto the bodies of dancing apes in a jungle scene. The clip plays over the opening lyrics of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” before cutting away. The moment was small in duration, but explosive in impact.

 Within hours, the post drew intense backlash, with critics pointing to the long history of racist imagery comparing Black people to primates.

Despite the backlash, the White House dismissed criticism as overblown. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt framed the video as part of a broader “internet meme,” describing it as a parody portraying Trump as a “lion” figure and Democrats as animals from a Lion King-style theme. She urged media outlets to “stop the fake outrage” and focus on issues “that actually matter.”

That defense did little to slow criticism, including from Republicans.

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina wrote on social media that the clip was “the most racist thing” he had seen from the White House and urged its removal. Democratic officials were even more blunt, with California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office calling the video “disgusting behavior by the President” and urging GOP leaders to denounce it.

Former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes weighed in on X as well,

Notably, Trump offered no clarification or apology and did not address the controversy directly. The video, later deleted in the evening, remains part of a broader pattern of late-night Truth Social posts in which the president has amplified election denial claims and provocative meme-style content.

The incident also revived concerns about the growing use of AI-generated imagery in political messaging. Trump has previously shared fabricated AI videos involving Barack Obama, including a fake arrest scenario that drew widespread condemnation last year.