Video: ‘I didn’t make a mistake’: Trump responds to outrage over racist Obama Video
US President Donald Trump
Abdullateef Fowewe
President Donald Trump has pushed back against backlash over a now-deleted Truth Social video he approved, which started with 2020 election fraud claims in Georgia but ended with a racist parody superimposing Barack and Michelle Obama onto ape bodies in a “Lion King” scene—a trope drawing from centuries-old anti-Black imagery.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump blamed staff oversight, saying he only glanced at the beginning.
“I looked at the first part. It was about voter fraud in someplace Georgia. There was a lot of voter fraud, 2020 voter fraud,” Trump said.
“I didn’t see the whole thing. I guess during the end of it, there was some kind of a picture that people don’t like. I just looked at the first part and it was really about voter fraud then I gave it to the people to generally they look at the whole thing but I guess somebody didn’t and they posted and we took it down.”
The White House attributed the post to a junior staffer, but Trump declined to fire anyone or apologise, despite calls from some Republicans.
“No, I didn’t make a mistake,” he insisted.
“I mean you give I look at a lot of thousands of things and I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine.”
He described the offensive clip as “a takeoff on the Lion King,” adding that Sen. Tim Scott “understood that 100%,” even as Democrats condemned the imagery and some GOP figures urged contrition.
The controversy failed to dent Trump’s base support, with Truth Social’s parent company stock surging 5% that day amid heightened platform traffic.
Trump refocused on his core message, “That was a voter fraud that nobody talks about.”
