Donald Trump shares TruthSocial video that makes President Obama look like a monkey
President Donald Trump shared a video on Truth Social depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as monkeys.
- President Donald Trump’s Truth social account shared a video depicting the Obamas with monkey-like bodies.
- Portraying black people as monkeys or apes is a racist trope with historical roots in eugenics.
- Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt initially denied concerns about the racist image, but the White House later removed the post, blaming staff for it.
President Donald Trump’s social media accounts shared a clip that replaced former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama’s faces with ape-like illustrations, a racist image rooted in the eugenics and Jim Crow era.
The one-minute video, posted to Truth Social late on February 5 and deleted about 12 hours later, features footage discussing unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, before briefly cutting to a clip aimed at portraying the Obamas.
The scene, which appears to have been generated by AI, showed the Obamas in a jungle with a gorilla-like corpse. It was cut from a longer doctored video that showed Democrats’ faces on various animals, called President Trump the “king of the jungle,” and showed a lion’s face. Walking next to his lion body in the video is Pepe the frog. This is a popular internet meme that was added to the hate symbol database during the 2016 election.
Many on social media, including some Republicans, condemned the depiction as racist.
White House press secretary Caroline Levitt initially dismissed the criticism, pointing to the King of the Jungle meme. The White House has since deleted the video, blaming staffers, officials previously told USA TODAY.
The deepfake video is the latest shared by the administration to draw criticism after Barack Obama was arrested in the Oval Office (which never actually happened) and a synthetic video of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero was released.
But portraying black people as any kind of monkey or monkey has a dark past. Here’s what you need to know:
Why are images of monkeys racist?
In short, it is dehumanizing, but its use within America’s history of slavery and racism is particularly troubling.
The association of black people with primates stems from the eugenics argument that black people are biologically inferior or inferior humans. (Eugenics theory has been widely debunked and condemned, especially after it was used as a justification for the Holocaust).
This message was also spread through what was considered entertainment at the time. For example, in 1906, the Bronx Zoo caged a Congolese man named Ota Benga as an exhibit in the primate house. A New York Times report at the time said, “It’s probably a good thing that Benga doesn’t give it too much thought,” speculating that unpleasant zoo-goers may not understand that Benga’s species is not held in high esteem among humans.
Gregory Parks and Daniel Hurd wrote in a 2009 Cornell Law School Working Papers publication about the dangers of racist jokes against Obama: “The development of cultural myths about sub-black humanity served as a justification for Jim Crow segregation and vigilante acts against blacks in the form of lynching in the American South.”
Since the era of the civil rights movement, images of apes and gorillas have continued to perpetuate stereotypes of black people as savage and bestial, they write.
This isn’t the first time the Obamas have been exposed to racist interactions with primates. According to the Jim Crow Museum, Barack Obama was repeatedly depicted as an ape during the 2008 presidential election. A small West Virginia town sparked controversy over a Facebook post that called Michelle Obama a “monkey in heels.” In 2009, a New York Post cartoon showed two police officers shooting a chimpanzee in a conversation bubble, saying, “We’re going to have to find someone to write the next stimulus bill.”
What did the Obamas say about the monkey video?
USA TODAY has reached out to the Obamas for comment.
The original “King of the Jungle,” as the White House referred to it, featured President Trump’s head superimposed on the body of a lion. The faces of other politicians are also superimposed on the animals, including Jefferies, former President Joe Biden, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In what appears to be a response to the video, Jeffries posted to X calling the Obamas “smart, caring and patriotic Americans.”
“Donald Trump is a vile, unhinged, malignant bottom feeder,” Jeffries’ post reads. “All Republicans must immediately condemn Donald Trump’s abhorrent bigotry.”
Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a frequent Trump ally, also criticized the post before it was deleted.
“I hope it’s fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen in this White House,” Scott wrote, calling on the president to take it down.
Contributors: Joey Garrison, Susan Miller, USA TODAY
Kinsey Crowley is a Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Please contact KCrowley@usatodayco.com. follow her X (Twitter), blue sky and TikTok.
