Trump's Racist Obama Video Sparks Outrage Among Allies and Critics
Despite Donald Trump's war on woke culture, he has not yet made Black History Month illegal. In fact, on Tuesday, the president issued a proclamation declaring February 2026 a celebration of Black history, calling upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all Americans to observe it with appropriate programs and activities.
Clearly, he did not get his own memo. Two days later, during one of his frenetic late-night Truth Social ranting sessions, Trump posted a blatantly racist video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The minute-long video, created by a third party, amplified false claims that Trump won the 2020 election and showed the first Black president and first lady superimposed on the bodies of primates in a jungle setting, bobbing their heads to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
A Pattern of Racist Behavior
It would be wrong to call this a mask-off moment because there is no mask with Trump. He has a long history of racist remarks and actions. He has called Somali immigrants "garbage," talked about "shithole countries," and described Covid-19 as the "kung flu." He launched his 2016 presidential campaign by labeling Mexican immigrants as drug dealers, criminals, and rapists. He repeatedly questioned Obama's birth certificate, initiated a so-called Muslim ban, and used the word "Palestinian" as a slur. Palestinians mean so little to him that a plan to build megacities in the ruins of Gaza circulated in the White House.
While Trump's latest exhibition of racism was hardly surprising, it was still shocking. Indeed, the image was so blatantly racist that even some of Trump's allies were disgusted. Senator Tim Scott, for example, who was on Trump's shortlist to be vice president in 2024 and is the only Black Republican senator, wrote that the video was the "most racist thing" he has seen from the Trump White House. You should probably pay a little more attention then, Tim! There is plenty of competition for that accolade.
Political Reactions and White House Response
A few other Republicans, including Representative Mike Lawler of New York, also denounced the post. Democrats spoke out as well, with House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black leader of a party in Congress, calling Trump "a vile, unhinged, and malignant bottom feeder."
The White House responded with their go-to strategy of aggressive gaslighting. "This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King," press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Friday. "Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public."
Shortly after that statement, however, the story coming out of the administration changed. The video was taken down, and it was reported that a White House staffer "erroneously made the post."
Why This Matters
By rights, the Trump administration deleting the post would not be the end of this story. By rights, the outrage over this would mount, and Trump would face serious consequences for his actions. I am sure I do not need to tell you this, but for the benefit of press secretary Leavitt, I am going to spell it out: Trump's stupid memes and social media posts matter. They matter because the president helps set the parameters of acceptable discourse. They matter because his bigotry emboldens others. Most of all, they matter because they reflect his policies.
But while Trump's racist video should impact his presidency, it will not, will it? This is, after all, a convicted felon and adjudicated sexual predator we are talking about. A man who appears to be successfully shrugging off his connections with Jeffrey Epstein, a child rapist. Give it a few days, and nobody will remember this story. It will have been eclipsed by another scandal and then another scandal and then another scandal. And, if we are not careful, we will grow ever more desensitized to these scandals.
A Broader Decline in Decency
It is not just democracy that is dying in the US right now; it is common decency. Every day when I look at the news, I wonder what on earth I am supposed to tell my four-year-old about how to succeed in a world where kindness and compassion seem to be hindrances to getting ahead. A world where it is the scum that rises to the top. The idea that we live in a meritocracy, a word coined by a man who used it satirically, has long been demonstrably false. Now, however, we seem to live in a malice-ocracy: the nastier, the crueler, the more self-serving you are, the better your chances of success.
