Donald Trump posted a video on his Truth Social account that has caused a major uproar. The clip, which lasts about a minute, pushes the old conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen through Dominion Voting Systems. Toward the end, it includes a brief — roughly two-second — segment where Barack and Michelle Obama’s faces are edited onto monkeys, with them bobbing along to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
People online and in politics reacted strongly, calling it outright racist and disgusting. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office called it “disgusting behavior by the President” and urged every Republican to condemn it immediately. Political commentator Adam Parkhomenko said it was “overt racism” with no room for excuses.
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Social media was full of anger too — one user said it put Trump “two steps below contempt,” while another wrote they’d voted for him but couldn’t believe this new low.
Some folks defended the post, praising Trump and echoing his election fraud claims, but the backlash was intense and came from both sides.
The White House pushed back at first through Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, explaining that the image came from an internet meme video portraying Trump as the “King of the Jungle” (like a lion) and various Democrats as characters from The Lion King. She called the outrage “fake” and said people should focus on real issues.
Later reports indicate the post was deleted, and in some accounts, the White House shifted to blaming a staffer for sharing it by mistake. Trump himself reportedly stood by not apologizing.
The Obamas haven’t made any public comment on it yet.
This kind of imagery carries heavy historical weight, often tied to racist tropes used to dehumanize Black people, which is why so many saw it as crossing a serious line — even in the heated world of political memes and social media spats.
