&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Trump refuses to apologise, claims 'didn't make a mistake,' after posting 'most racist' Obama video on Truth Social")
US President Donald Trump on Friday (Feb 6) claimed that he had not watched the controversial Obama ape video in full before it was posted on his Truth Social account. His denial claim comes after the racist clip sparked widespread criticism for depicting former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys.
A stupid 'racist' mistake?
Talking to reporters, Trump said, "I just looked at the first part... and I didn't see the whole thing,"
adding that he "gave" the video to staff members to upload, and that they also did not watch it completely. "No, I didn't make a mistake," he insisted.
What made the video racist?
The video, posted late Thursday (Feb 5) night, quickly drew backlash across the political spectrum. Near the end of the roughly one-minute clip, which repeated conspiracy theories about Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, the Obamas briefly appeared, their faces superimposed on the bodies of monkeys, while the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” played in the background.
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The post remained online for about 12 hours before being removed. The White House initially dismissed criticism as "fake outrage," but later claimed the video had been shared in error by a staff member. "A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down," a White House official told AFP.
However, earlier, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had claimed that the images were "from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King." She further asked the press to "report on something today that actually matters to the American public," which apparently an openly racist depiction of America's first Black president isn't.
Democrats strongly condemned the post, calling it racist and offensive. Former vice president Kamala Harris said the White House's explanation was not credible. "No one believes this cover-up from the White House, especially since they originally defended this post," she wrote on X. "We are all clear-eyed about who Donald Trump is and what he believes."
Some Republicans also spoke out. Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, described the video as "the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House," and urged Trump to remove it. Senator Roger Wicker called the post "totally unacceptable" and said the president should apologise.
