Trump Shares Video Portraying the Obamas as Apes
The New York Times • • general
Key Points:
- President Trump shared a video late Thursday night that included a brief clip depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes, set to the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."
- The 62-second video promoted conspiracy theories about anomalies in the 2020 presidential election and portrayed Trump as a lion while showing several Democrats, including the Obamas, as various animals.
- White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the backlash as "fake outrage," describing the video as an internet meme portraying Trump as the "King of the Jungle" and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.
- The depiction of the Obamas as apes invokes a racist trope historically used to dehumanize Black people, drawing widespread condemnation, including from
