Trump shares racist video depicting Obamas as primates in jungle; Democrat Newsom calls it ‘disgusting behaviour’

President Donald Trump shared a video on his social media account about election conspiracy theories that featured a racist portrayal of former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as primates in a jungle.

The post, shared late Thursday night, sparked immediate criticism over its offensive depiction of the country’s first Black president and first lady.

The video was part of a broader wave of social media posts in which Trump repeated his false assertions that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, claims that have been repeatedly rejected by courts nationwide and by his own attorney general during his first term, who found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have altered the result.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed criticism of the post that featured the Obamas, both Democrats.

Leavitt said via text, making reference to Disney’s 1994 film, “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King.”

She added, "Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public."

Most of the 62-second video, which was one of dozens of posts Trump shared on Truth Social overnight, appears to be taken from a conservative video alleging intentional manipulation of voting machines in key battleground states during the 2020 vote count.

Near the 60-second point, the clip briefly shows two primates with the smiling faces of the Obamas digitally superimposed.

Those images were pulled from a longer video that had previously circulated online from a prominent conservative meme creator. The video portrays Trump as the “King of the Jungle” and depicts several Democratic leaders as animals, including Joe Biden, who is white, shown as a primate eating a banana.

The song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is heard playing in the background when the Obamas appear in the clip.

Ben Rhodes, a former senior national security adviser and close associate of Barack Obama, also criticised the imagery. “Let it haunt Trump and his racist followers that future Americans will embrace the Obamas as beloved figures while studying him as a stain on our history,” he wrote on X.

Last year, Trump shared an artificial intelligence–generated video that depicted Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office and later shown behind bars wearing an orange jumpsuit.

He later posted another AI-created clip showing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is Black, wearing a fake mustache and a sombrero.

Jeffries condemned the image as racist.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has faced criticism from opponents for spearheading efforts against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.