President Donald Trump refused to apologize on Friday night for posting to social media a racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as apes, claiming he “didn’t make a mistake.”
Trump added he wasn’t going to fire the unnamed staffer who the White House says posted the video — depicting a racist trope with deep historical roots — that was deleted after it prompted swift condemnation from lawmakers in both parties.
He claimed the video was about alleged voter fraud in Georgia, and a staffer “slipped and missed” a small part of it before posting it, adding that “of course” he condemned the racist imagery. He said he had no message for anyone offended by the posting because he “didn’t know about it.”
“I am, by the way, the least racist president you’ve had in a long time as far as I’m concerned,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday night.
“I am, by the way, the least racist president you’ve had in a long time as far as I’m concerned,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday night.
The racist imagery appeared in the final seconds of a minute-long video amplifying conspiracy theories about the 2020 election that Trump has repeatedly promoted.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., responded with his own video on Friday condemning Trump as an “unhinged bottom feeder” who “intentionally” posted the video.
“F—k Donald Trump,” the video stated.
After roughly 12 hours online, the post vanished from Trump’s Truth Social account around noon Friday.
“A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down,” a White House official told MS NOW.
The explanation marked a reversal from the administration’s initial response, when White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed mounting criticism as “fake outrage” and defended the video as harmless internet humor.
“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt said in a statement earlier Friday morning. “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, though the clip posted on Trump’s account features only the Obamas.
Leavitt’s initial response calling the video a “meme” was issued unilaterally by the White House press office without the sign off of top senior officials, one senior White House official told MS NOW, speaking on the condition of anonymity about internal issues. That is standard protocol for a Trump White House, the official said.
“You need to understand that this isn’t a usual political operation: Everyone has their own lane and usually it works out fine, until it doesn’t,” the official said. “There are no big, long messaging meetings. No calendars. No strategy sessions. This isn’t a White House you see on ‘The West Wing.’ There are no approvals.”
The three-second segment appears to have originated from a pro-Trump account on X, and the White House initially directed reporters to the original video, which depicts several prominent Democrats as animals and Trump as a lion, with a caption reading “President Trump: King of the Jungle.”
The post drew rare public criticism from Republicans who have largely remained loyal to Trump during his second term, and comes as his flagging poll numbers have worried many in the party as the 2026 midterm elections grow closer.
“It’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., a Trump ally and leader of the Senate GOP’s re-election efforts, wrote on X. He called on Trump to delete the video, adding that he was “praying it was fake.”
“This is totally unacceptable,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. “The president should take it down and apologize.”
Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., addressed Leavitt’s response in his own statement. “Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this. The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize.”
The Obamas have so far not publicly responded.
The incident echoes Trump’s history of attacks against Obama, the nation’s first Black president. Ahead of his 2016 victory, Trump pushed false “birther” claims about Obama, fueled by racist conspiracy theories that he was born in Kenya and therefore ineligible for the presidency. Trump later conceded that Obama was, in fact, an American-born citizen.
Ali Vitali, Emily Hung, Soorin Kim and Wendell Tom contributed to this report.
Akayla Gardner is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.
Jake Traylor is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.