WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� President Donald Trump鈥檚 racist social media post featuring former and his wife, , as primates in a jungle was deleted Friday after a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats who criticized the video as offensive.
Trump said later Friday that he won’t apologize for the post: 鈥淚 didn’t make a mistake,鈥� he said.
The Republican president鈥檚 Thursday night post was blamed on a staffer after widespread backlash, from civil rights leaders to veteran Republican senators, for its treatment of the nation鈥檚 first Black president and first lady. A rare admission of a misstep by the White House, the deletion came hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed 鈥渇ake outrage鈥� over the post. After calls for its removal 鈥� including by Republicans 鈥� the White House said a staffer had posted the video erroneously.
The post was part of a flurry of overnight activity on Trump’s Truth Social account that amplified his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite and Trump’s first-term attorney general finding no evidence of systemic fraud.
Trump has a record of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas and of using incendiary, sometimes racist, rhetoric 鈥� from feeding the lie that Obama was not a native-born U.S. citizen to crude generalizations about majority-Black countries.
The post came in the first week of Black History Month and days after a Trump cited 鈥渢he contributions of black Americans to our national greatness鈥� and 鈥渢he American principles of liberty, justice, and equality.鈥�
An Obama spokeswoman said the former president, a Democrat, had no response.
鈥楢n internet meme鈥�
Nearly all of the 62-second clip appears to be from a conservative video alleging deliberate tampering with voting machines in battleground states as 2020 votes were tallied. At the 60-second mark is a quick scene of two jungle primates, with the Obamas鈥� smiling faces imposed on them.
Those frames originated from a separate video, previously circulated by an influential conservative meme maker. It shows Trump as 鈥淜ing of the Jungle鈥� and depicts Democratic leaders as animals, including Joe Biden, who is white, as a jungle primate eating a banana.
鈥淭his is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,鈥� Leavitt said by text.
Disney’s 1994 feature film that Leavitt referenced is set on the savannah, not in the jungle, and it does not include great apes.
鈥淧lease stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,鈥� Leavitt added.
By noon, the post had been taken down, with responsibility placed on a Trump subordinate.
Trump, answering questions from reporters accompanying him Friday night aboard Air Force One, said the video was about fraudulent elections and that he liked what he saw.
鈥淚 liked the beginning. I saw it and just passed it on, and I guess probably nobody reviewed the end of it,鈥� he said.
Asked if he condemned the video’s racism, Trump said, 鈥淥f course I do.鈥�
The White House explanation raises questions about control of Trump鈥檚 social media account, which he’s used to levy import taxes, threaten military action, make other announcements and intimidate political rivals. The president often signs his name or initials after policy posts.
The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry about how posts are vetted and when the public can know when Trump himself is posting.
Mark Burns, a pastor and a prominent Trump supporter who is Black, said Friday on X that he’d spoken 鈥渄irectly鈥� with Trump and that he recommended to the president that he fire the staffer who posted the video and publicly condemn what happened.
鈥淗e knows this is wrong, offensive, and unacceptable,鈥� Burns posted.
Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., told The Associated Press she does 鈥渘ot buy the White House’s commentary.鈥�
鈥淚f there wasn鈥檛 a climate, a toxic and racist climate within the White House, we wouldn鈥檛 see this type of behavior regardless of who it鈥檚 coming from,鈥� Clarke said, adding that Trump 鈥渋s a racist, he鈥檚 a bigot, and he will continue to do things in his presidency to make that known.鈥�
Condemnation across the political spectrum
Trump and White House social media accounts frequently . As Leavitt did Friday, Trump allies typically cast them as humorous.
This time, condemnations flowed from across the spectrum 鈥� along with demands for an apology that doesn’t appear to be coming.
At a Black History Month market in Harlem, the historically Black neighborhood in New York City, vendor Jacklyn Monk said Trump鈥檚 post was embarrassing even if it was eventually deleted. 鈥淭he guy needs help. I’m sorry he’s representing our country. 鈥� It鈥檚 horrible that it was this month, but it would be horrible if it was in March also.鈥�
In Atlanta, Rev. Bernice King, daughter of the assassinated civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., resurfaced her father’s words: 鈥淵es. I’m Black. I’m proud of it. I’m Black and beautiful.鈥� Black Americans, she said, 鈥渁re beloved of God as postal workers and professors, as a former first lady and president. We are not apes.鈥�
The U.S. Senate’s lone Black Republican, Tim Scott of South Carolina, called on Trump to take down the post. 鈥淧raying it was fake because it鈥檚 the most racist thing I鈥檝e seen out of this White House,鈥� said Scott, who chairs Senate Republicans’ midterm campaign arm.
Another Republican, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, is white but represents the state with the largest percentage of Black residents. Wicker called the post 鈥渢otally unacceptable鈥� and said the president should apologize.
Some Republicans who face tough reelections this November voiced concerns, as well. The result was an unusual cascade of intraparty criticism for a president who has enjoyed a stranglehold over fellow Republicans who stayed silent during previous Trump controversies for fear of a public spat with the president or losing his endorsement in a future campaign.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson called the video 鈥渦tterly despicable鈥� and pointed to Trump’s wider political concerns that could help explain Republicans’ willingness to speak out. Johnson asserted that Trump is trying anything to distract from economic conditions and attention on the .
鈥淵ou know who isn鈥檛 in the Epstein files? Barack Obama,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou know who actually improved the economy as president? Barack Obama.鈥�
A long history of racism
There is a long history in the U.S. of powerful white figures associating Black people with animals, including apes, in demonstrably false, racist ways. The practice dates to 18th century cultural racism and pseudo-scientific theories used to justify the enslavement of Black people, and later to dehumanize freed Black people as uncivilized threats to white people.
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote in his famous text 鈥淣otes on the State of Virginia鈥� that Black women were the preferred sexual partners of orangutans. President Dwight Eisenhower, discussing school desegregation in the 1950s, suggested white parents were rightfully concerned about their daughters being in classrooms with 鈥渂ig Black bucks.鈥� Obama, as a candidate and president, was featured as a monkey or other primates on T-shirts and other merchandise.
In his 2024 campaign, Trump said immigrants were 鈥減oisoning the blood of our country,鈥� language used to dehumanize Jews in Nazi Germany.
During his first White House term, Trump called a swath of majority-Black, developing nations 鈥渟hithole countries.鈥� He initially denied saying it but that he did.
When Obama was in the White House, Trump pushed false claims that the 44th president, who was born in Hawaii, was born in Kenya and constitutionally ineligible to serve. Trump, in interviews that helped endear him to conservatives, demanded that Obama prove he was a 鈥渘atural-born citizen鈥� as required to become president.
Obama eventually released birth records, and Trump during his 2016 campaign, after having won the Republican nomination, that Obama was born in Hawaii. But immediately after, he said, falsely, that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton started the birtherism attacks.
___ Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press journalists Moriah Balingit in Washington, Darlene Superville in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Ted Shaffrey in New York contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
