Trump Slammed For Sharing Image Of Barack And Michelle Obama As Monkeys, White House Responds

Donald Trump is once again targeting Barack and Michelle Obama with blatant racism. In a post that has since been removed, Trump shared a racist image of the Obamas depicted as monkeys, which drew intense and immediate backlash.

Using his Truth Social platform, Trump posted the highly offensive image on Thursday, Feb. 5, and the White House initially defended it before it was ultimately removed.

In the image, which was part of an AI video, Barack and Michelle Obama’s faces are superimposed on the bodies of monkeys as they move throughout a fake jungle setting.

As the post made the rounds online and the backlash grew, the White House defended Trump’s post and issued a statement to CNN regarding the image on Friday morning, February 6.

“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the outlet. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

However, a few hours after that statement was shared, the Trump administration blamed the image being posted on a staffer and said it had been removed.

“A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down,” a White House official confirmed to NBC News.

The imagery depicting the Obamas as monkeys taps into historically racist stereotypes and imagery against Black people, which Trump has utilized on numerous occasions throughout both of his White House terms.

Known Trump supporter South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who is the only Black Republican in the upper chamber, shared his criticism of the post on social media. “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it," Scott wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Other Republican Senators also followed suit with posts condemning the imagery.

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb wrote on X, "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.”

Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, also took to X, writing, "The President’s post is wrong and incredibly offensive — whether intentional or a mistake — and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, further slammed Trump on X, posting, "This is dangerous and degrades our country — where are Senate Republicans? The President must immediately delete the post and apologize to Barack and Michelle Obama, two great Americans who make Donald Trump look like a small, envious man."

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has also been subjected to Trump’s racist imagery in the past, shared his thoughts on X as well.

"President Obama and Michelle Obama are brilliant, compassionate and patriotic Americans. They represent the best of this country. Donald Trump is a vile, unhinged and malignant bottom feeder."

Keeping in line with how they generally react to Trump ongoing attacks against them, Barack and Michelle have not responded to the racist imagery he posted of them, and they likely won’t.

Rarely does the former president and First Lady directly address Trump, who continuously uses his Truth Social platform to attack them.

As he continues to face nationwide resistance to the deployment of ICE agents that have resulted in two fatalities, Trump addressed the deaths in an interview with NBC News that is set to air in its entirety on Super Bowl Sunday.

“He was not an angel and she was not an angel,” Trump said of the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Peretti. “I think they were both sad.”

He then stated that ICE agents felt bad about the deaths of the two unarmed citizens. “And you know who feels worse about it than anybody? The people of ICE.”

In a lengthy statement posted to Instagram, Barack and Michelle shared a joint statement condemning the escalating violence continuously enforced by ICE agents via the Trump administration.

“For weeks now, people across the country have been rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city,” the post read in part.

“These unprecedented tactics – which even the former top lawyer of the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration has characterized as embarrassing, lawless and cruel – have now resulted in the fatal shootings of two U.S citizens."

The statement continued, “And yet rather than trying to impose some semblance of discipline and accountability over the agents they’ve deployed, the President and current administration officials seem eager to escalate the situation, while offering public explanations for the shootings of Mr. Pretti and Renee Good that aren’t informed by any serious investigation – and that appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence. This has to stop."