Trump Says He Won’t Apologise for Post Depicting Obamas as Apes
United States President Donald Trump has said he will not apologise for a controversial social media post that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.
The post, which appeared briefly on Trump’s official Truth Social account late Thursday, contained racist imagery that superimposed the faces of the former first couple onto cartoon apes while promoting conspiracy theories about voting machines used during the 2020 United States presidential election.
Following widespread backlash from civil rights groups, lawmakers, and members of both major political parties, the post was deleted after remaining online for about 12 hours.
However, speaking to reporters late Friday night, Trump defended his actions and insisted he made no mistake sharing the video.
“I didn’t make a mistake,” Trump said. “I didn’t see the whole thing. I looked at the first part, and it was really about voter fraud in the machines.”
Trump explained that he did not watch the entire clip before it was posted and blamed his team for failing to properly review its full content.
“Then I gave it to the people. Generally, they look at the whole thing. But I guess somebody didn’t,” he added.
When asked directly whether he condemned the racist depiction of the Obamas contained in the video, Trump replied, “Of course I do,” but maintained that he would not issue an apology for sharing the content.
The White House initially defended the post in a statement issued by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who described the video as an internet meme portraying Trump as the “King of the Jungle” and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.
“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt said in the statement.
Hours later, the video was removed from Trump’s Truth Social account without further explanation.
The incident has renewed criticism of Trump’s continued promotion of unsubstantiated claims about the 2020 election and has drawn condemnation from civil rights advocates, who described the imagery as deeply offensive and racially charged.
