Barack Obama is speaking out after a racist video depicting him and his wife, Michelle Obama, as apes circulated online and was shared by President Donald Trump.
In an interview with Brian Tyler Cohen released Saturday, Feb. 14, Obama, 64, called the now-deleted post “deeply troubling.” The clip showed the couple’s faces superimposed on animated apes dancing to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
“It’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,” Obama said. “It is true that it gets attention, that it’s a distraction, but as I’m traveling around the country … you meet people [and] they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness. And there’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television.”
Obama did not mention Trump by name as Cohen referenced the video, but he criticized the broader tone of political discourse and what he described as a loss of decorum.
“And what is true is that there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and the sense of propriety and respect for the office,” Obama said. “That’s been lost.”
The video drew backlash after it was shared on Truth Social on Feb. 5. It appeared near the end of a longer clip that also included unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud during the 2020 election.
When asked about the post by a journalist on Friday, Feb. 6, Trump declined to apologize, saying, “No, I didn’t make a mistake.”
“I mean I look at a lot of thousands of things. I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine,” he continued. “I guess it was a take off on The Lion King and certainly it was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud.”
He added, “Nobody knew that that was in the end. If they would have seen it and probably they would have had the sense to take it down.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Trump in a statement, describing the post as part of an internet meme that framed Trump as the “King of the Jungle” and Democrats as characters from The Lion King, adding, “Please stop the fake outrage…”
The White House later said a staff member mistakenly posted the video before it was taken down, though the staffer was not identified. On Feb. 12, when asked whether the person responsible had been fired or disciplined, Trump said, “No, I haven’t.”
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/Donald-Trump-Obamas-020626-1-2992a2e45bc74e0baf06453ed2639c3c.jpg)
In the same interview, Obama also criticized actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Trump’s administration, calling them “deeply concerning” and “dangerous.”
“It is important for us to recognize the unprecedented nature of what ICE was doing in Minneapolis–Saint Paul,” he said. “The way that ICE agents were being deployed without any clear guidelines, training … pulling people out of their homes … teargassing crowds simply because they were standing there not breaking any laws.”
“The rogue behavior of agents of the federal government is deeply concerning and dangerous,” Obama continued. “But we should take a moment to appreciate the extraordinary outpouring of organizing [and] community-building, decency … in a systematic, organized way, citizens saying this is not the America we believe in. And we’re going to fight back and we’re gonna push back with the truth.”
