US President Donald Trump has come under intense criticism after sharing an AI-generated video on his Truth Social platform that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as monkeys.
The video, which stared circulating online on Thursday, triggered outrage from Democrats, civil rights advocates, and commentators who described it as blatantly racist and deeply offensive.
Okay News reports that the brief clip was embedded in a longer video promoting election conspiracy theories, including false claims about the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Near the end of the video, the Obamas were shown for a few seconds with their faces digitally placed on monkeys’ bodies, accompanied by background music, a move critics say relied on long-standing racist tropes.
Historians and anti-racism advocates note that portraying Black people as apes or monkeys has a long history rooted in dehumanisation. Such imagery was historically used to justify slavery, colonialism, and systemic discrimination by presenting Black people as less than fully human, making its modern use especially inflammatory.
Democratic leaders were quick to condemn the post. California Governor Gavin Newsom called it “disgusting behavior by the President” and urged Republicans to denounce it, while former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes said the incident would further cement Trump’s legacy as one marked by racism, contrasting it with how the Obamas are likely to be remembered in American history.
