U.S. President Donald Trump posted a video on his social media (SNS) that spliced the faces of former President Barack Obama and his wife onto monkeys, then deleted it on the 6th (local time) after controversy erupted.
The video claimed that the 2020 election, in which President Trump failed to win reelection, was a "rigged election," and it ended with a clip depicting the former President Obama and his wife as monkeys. It showed the Obamas, with monkeys' bodies, swaying to music.
On a flight leaving the White House for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, President Trump told reporters he had "only seen the first part" of the video and said it was "about voter fraud." He added, "(After seeing only the first part) I passed it along to the people (who manage my social media account). Usually they watch the whole thing, but it seems someone didn't, and it was posted," and said, "We took it down as soon as we found out." It is interpreted to mean that one of his staff posted it on Truth Social without reviewing the entire video.
However, even though controversy flared immediately after the video was posted the previous night, White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt dismissed it as "fake outrage." This has prompted claims that it is hard to see the incident as a staff mistake.
Asked whether he intended to apologize for posting the video, President Trump said, "No. I didn't make a mistake," emphasizing, "I liked the beginning (the election-rigging claim), I watched it, and just passed it along." When asked whether he would "condemn" the part that disparaged former President Obama, he replied, "Of course."
Earlier, President Trump pushed the claim that former President Obama was not born in the United States, and last year he posted on Truth Social an AI-generated video showing Obama being arrested in the Oval Office, wearing a prison uniform and locked behind bars. He also faced criticism for racism after posting an AI video of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of the Democratic Party, who is Black, wearing a fake mustache and a sombrero, a traditional Mexican hat.