WASHINGTON — The White House on Friday deleted a Trump racist video from President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account after lawmakers in both parties demanded it be removed. The post promoted false claims about the 2020 election and ended with an apparently AI-generated clip that superimposed former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama onto apes — imagery critics said echoed a dehumanizing racist trope — and Trump said he would not apologize, Feb. 6, 2026.
Fallout from the Trump racist video
According to ABC News, the Trump racist video was posted at 11:44 p.m. ET Thursday and remained online for nearly 12 hours before being taken down around midday Friday. By Friday afternoon, a White House official told reporters that a staff member had made the post in error.
Before the post was removed, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended it as an internet meme and dismissed criticism as “fake outrage,” writing that it depicted Trump as the “King of the Jungle” and Democrats as characters from “The Lion King,” The Washington Post reported. The Obamas did not immediately comment through representatives contacted by multiple outlets.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Senate’s only Black Republican, called for the post to be removed, writing on X: “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.” Other Republicans and Democrats also criticized the post, describing it as offensive and urging an apology.
Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, said he had not watched the entire video before it was posted and condemned the imagery but would not say he was sorry. “I didn’t see the whole thing,” Trump said, adding that he reviewed the beginning and then handed it off to staff. Asked if he condemned the clip, he replied, “Of course I do,” and when asked to apologize, he said, “No, I didn’t make a mistake,” according to Reuters.
Civil rights advocates also weighed in. Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, called the post “blatantly racist, disgusting, and utterly despicable,” Reuters reported. The White House did not identify the staff member it said mistakenly posted the Trump racist video or say whether any disciplinary action would follow.
Past controversies add context
The episode revived scrutiny of Trump’s long record of amplifying polarizing material online and leaning into race-related flashpoints. In 2016, Trump ended years of promoting the false “birther” claim that Obama was not born in the United States, but did so without apologizing, Reuters wrote at the time. In 2017, Trump drew international backlash after sharing anti-Muslim videos posted by a British far-right figure, with the White House defending the retweets as raising security concerns, according to Reuters. And in 2020, he retweeted — and later deleted — a video in which a supporter shouted “white power,” prompting criticism from allies and opponents alike, Reuters reported.
In this latest case, the Trump racist video was removed only after a public, bipartisan rebuke — an outcome that underscored how quickly presidential social media can trigger political fallout, even when the White House initially tries to defend it. Trump, however, left little doubt about his posture heading into the weekend: He condemned the image, but refused to apologize for the post.
