US President Donald Trump refused to apologize for sharing a social media video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
Addressing the issue on Friday, Feb. 6, Trump said he did not realize the image of the former US President and First Lady was tacked on to the end of the clip.
The clip – set to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight – was at the end of a 62-second video Trump shared containing claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The video was later removed.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said “I didn’t make a mistake” when asked whether he was going to apologise.
He added he had only seen the beginning of the video before it was posted by a staff member and didn’t know it contained that depiction of the Obamas.
“I look at a lot of thousands of things,” the president said while aboard Air Force One on Friday, adding that after watching only part of the video he “gave it to the people who generally, they look at the whole thing”.
He says he liked the video’s message on voter fraud, but that if his staff had looked at the whole thing, “probably they would have had the sense to take it down”.
“We took it down as soon as we found out about it,” he added.
The White House initially defended the video, claiming it was an “internet meme video” and told critics to “stop the fake outrage”.
However, after fierce backlash, including from several Republican senators, the post was removed from Trump’s Truth Social account and a White House official said that a staffer had “erroneously” made the post.
Republican Senator Tim Scott – who is black – described it as “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House”.
The video recalls racist caricatures comparing black people to monkeys.
The video also depicts several other high-profile Democrats as animals, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s predecessor in the White House, Joe Biden, is also depicted as an ape eating a banana.
The Obamas have yet to comment on the video.
See Trump’s response below.
Donald Trump has refused to apologise for sharing a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
“I didn’t make a mistake”, he said as reporters asked if he was going to apologise for the post. pic.twitter.com/M8Ca3tloQX
— The Independent (@Independent) February 7, 2026
