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trumps post about obamas

Trump recently shared a highly controversial social media video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, sparking bipartisan condemnation and accusations of racism.

Trump’s Post About the Obamas: Quick Scoop

What exactly did Trump post?

  • The post was a short video shared from Donald Trump’s Truth Social account late on Feb. 5, 2026.
  • The clip primarily focused on unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election before briefly cutting to imagery portraying Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
  • The post reportedly went up around midnight and did not include any explanatory text or caption from Trump.
  • The video stayed online for roughly half a day before it was deleted from Trump’s account.

Many critics emphasized that comparing Black people to apes has a long, well-documented history as a racist trope, which is why the imagery was so widely condemned.

How did Trump respond to the backlash?

  • Speaking to reporters on Air Force One the next day, Trump said he did not think he had “made a mistake” by sharing the video.
  • He claimed he had only watched the beginning of the clip, which focused on election claims, and said he did not see the part with the Obamas.
  • Trump said he looks at “thousands” of pieces of content and passed this one along after seeing only the start.
  • He refused to apologize when asked directly about demands from Republican lawmakers and others, saying “No, I didn’t make an error,” while also asserting that he condemned the racist portion of the video.

What did the White House say?

  • Initially, the White House press operation tried to frame the video as an “internet meme” depicting Trump as “King of the Jungle” and Democrats as “Lion King”–style characters, dismissing outrage as “fake.”
  • Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said critics should “stop the fake outrage and focus on something that actually matters to the American public.”
  • Later in the day, after the post was deleted, a White House spokesperson said a staffer had “mistakenly” posted the clip to Trump’s account.
  • That shift—from defending the content as a meme to calling it a staff mistake—was widely noted and fueled questions about accountability and internal decision-making.

Political and public reaction

  • The video drew condemnation across much of the political spectrum, including from some Republican lawmakers who privately and publicly urged Trump to take it down and apologize.
  • Civil rights voices and historians highlighted how the ape imagery taps into one of the oldest racist stereotypes used to dehumanize Black people.
  • Commentators and analysts on TV and online argued that the post was not just an attack on the Obamas as individuals but a broader racial insult.
  • The episode quickly became a major news story, dominating U.S. political coverage in early February 2026 and sparking renewed debate about presidential rhetoric, race, and social media.

Context and what it might mean next

  • Trump’s hostility toward Barack Obama is longstanding, dating back at least to his promotion of the false “birther” conspiracy theory about Obama’s citizenship in the early 2010s.
  • In the past, Trump has amplified memes and AI-generated videos targeting Obama, such as a fabricated clip showing Obama being arrested in the Oval Office.
  • The latest Obama video incident deepens concerns about how race is used in U.S. political messaging and how far a sitting president can go with incendiary content before facing meaningful consequences.
  • As of now, Trump has stuck to the line that he did not see the offensive part, does not believe he erred in posting the clip, and does not intend to apologize, even as the controversy continues.

TL;DR: Trump shared, then deleted, a meme-style video that portrayed Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, prompting strong criticism as racist; the White House first defended it as a meme, later blamed a staff error, and Trump himself has refused to apologize while claiming he did not see the offensive segment.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.