United States President, Donald Trump, has ignited widespread condemnation after sharing a video on his Truth social platform that portrays former President, Barack Obama, and former First Lady, Michelle Obama, as monkeys.
The one-minute video also featured cybersecurity expert, Phil Waldron, alleging irregularities during the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden. Waldron claimed that vote counting was halted in five key states using allegedly compromised software, and when counting resumed, a surge of votes favoured Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017.
The controversial segment appeared at the end of the video, showing AI-generated images of Barack and Michelle Obama dancing to The Lion Sleeps Tonight, a song popularised by Disney’s The Lion King. Social media quickly erupted in outrage, condemning the imagery as a racist attack.
The clip, shared early Friday, has been widely criticised as racist and offensive.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office condemned the video in a statement, saying, “Disgusting behaviour by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
Trump, who defeated Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, in 2016, has repeatedly promoted unproven claims of election fraud in 2020. Courts and election officials across the U.S. have dismissed these claims.
As of press time, the White House had not issued an official response to the backlash, with calls mounting for Trump to remove the video and apologise.
