WASHINGTON
A racist social media post by President Donald Trump featuring imagery depicting former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as primates was deleted by the White House Friday following a swift, bipartisan backlash.
The deletion marked a rare public retreat for an administration that had initially defended the video.
The post, which appeared on Trump’s Truth Social account Thursday night, sparked immediate condemnation from civil rights leaders, Democratic lawmakers, and veteran Republican senators alike.
Critics denounced the video’s treatment of the nation’s first Black first couple as deeply offensive.
In a reversal, the White House attributed the post to a staffer who had acted “erroneously.” This explanation came hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt had dismissed the controversy as “fake outrage.” The video was removed only after prominent Republicans joined calls for its deletion.
Asked about the incident later Friday, Trump refused to apologize. “I didn’t make a mistake,” he said.
The post was part of a series of overnight updates to Trump’s account that amplified his baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen—assertions repeatedly rejected by courts across the country and by his own former Attorney General, who found no evidence of widespread fraud.
By James Kisoo
