A controversial video widely perceived as racist towards former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, shared late Thursday night by President Donald Trump on his social media account, sparked widespread backlash and created chaos within the President’s internal team.
The roughly 60-second clip blended election conspiracy content with an animated sequence showing the Obamas depicted as primates in a jungle alongside the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” The video’s imagery drew immediate condemnation from lawmakers, civil rights groups, and commentators who said it invoked long-standing racist tropes dehumanizing Black Americans.
The video depicted several Democratic figures, including the Obamas, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, former President Joe Biden, and California Governor Gavin Newsom, as anthropomorphic animals from the 1994 Disney animated film “The Lion King.” However, what struck many as offensive and having racial undertones was the decision by the creator of the video to depict the 44th President and his wife as apes in the jungle, especially during Black History Month.
About 12 hours later, the post was taken down, and the White House characterized its publication as an error. A senior White House official said a staffer had “erroneously” posted the video, and that Trump was not aware it had gone up before it was deleted. In a statement to International Business Times, the White House said, “A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down.” However, the President has not publicly addressed the controversial video himself.
Initially, however, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the uproar as “fake outrage,” portraying the video as an innocuous internet meme intended to cast Trump as the “King of the Jungle” and political opponents as various characters from The Lion King. She urged the media to “report on something that actually matters to the American public.”
According to reporting from Semafor, the video caused widespread unrest within the White House. White House Correspondent for Semafor, Shelby Talcott, wrote that Trump’s aides are “pretty pissed off” about the video and are allegedly very angry with the aide who posted it.
Talcott quoted an anonymous source close to the White House as saying, “You can’t attempt to clean up the mess by continuing to make it messier.” Previous reporting and statements from Trump himself indicate that only a select few have access to the President’s social media. Figures who reportedly post for Trump frequently are White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino and aide Natalie Harp.
However, another source told Semafor that Scavino did not post the video and the White House “did not immediately return a request for comment on whether Harp was behind the post.”
