The White House is brushing aside criticism after President Donald Trump shared — and later deleted — an AI-generated video that portrays former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes, with officials calling the reaction “fake outrage.”
The clip appeared on Trump’s Truth Social account during Black History Month. Even after it was taken down, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed concerns and told critics to focus elsewhere.
“This is from an Internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from ‘The Lion King,’” Leavitt said. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
That explanation quickly drew ridicule online. As @Phil_Lewis_ noted, “there are no gorillas in The Lion King.”
The video also carried a watermark tied to a pro-Trump account. Commenters argued the imagery mirrors longstanding racist tropes that have been used against the Obamas — and that the fact it was shared by the president, even briefly, pushed the episode into a new territory.
“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” wrote Senator Tim Scott (it was real).
No condemnation of the depiction came from Trump or his administration. Alongside anger over the imagery itself, critics also zeroed in on what they described as a familiar pattern: deflect, downplay, and reframe.
Former White House Deputy Press Secretary and “Republican in exile” Sarah Matthews aimed her criticism directly at Leavitt’s defense.
“No job, clout, or proximity to power is worth debasing yourself to defend something like this,” she said.
