Trump Posts Video Depicting Former President Obama as an Ape, Drawing Fierce Condemnation

America. US President Donald Trump posted an election conspiracy video on Thursday. The video depicts former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama as apes. Following the release of the video, key Democratic leaders strongly condemned it.

In the nearly one-minute-long video posted on Truth Social, a platform owned by President Trump, former President Obama's face is shown superimposed on an ape's body for about a second towards the end.

The song 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' is heard playing in the background during the scene featuring the Obamas. The video reiterates the false allegation that Dominion Voting Systems, the ballot counting company, helped steal the 2020 presidential election from Trump.

As of Friday morning, the video had been liked thousands of times on the President's social media platform. The office of California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the post. Newsom is a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028 and is considered one of President Trump's main critics.

"The President's disgusting behavior. Every Republican must condemn this," was posted on the official X account of Newsom's press office. Ben Rhodes, former top national security advisor and a close confidant of Barack Obama, also criticized the image.

"Let this be a lesson to Trump and his racist followers, or future Americans will study and embrace Obama as a beloved figure, not a stain on our history," he wrote on X.

Barack Obama is the only Black president in American history. He had endorsed Kamala Harris, President Trump's rival in the 2024 presidential election. During the first year of his second term in the White House, President Trump has continuously promoted hyper-realistic yet fabricated visuals on Truth Social and other platforms. These posts often feature him glorifying himself while condemning his critics.

He has been using provocative posts to mobilize and energize his conservative supporters. Last year, President Trump posted an AI-generated video depicting Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office and shown in jail wearing an orange jumpsuit.

He then posted an AI clip of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a fake mustache and a sombrero. Jeffries called that image openly racist behavior.

Upon returning to the White House, President Trump faced criticism from opponents for campaigning against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, or DEI programs. One of President Trump's initial decisions was to terminate all federal government DEI programs, including those related to the military.

Under the campaign to 'liberate' the armed forces, which he mocked as the 'Awakening' initiative, several books covering America's discriminatory history were removed from the shelves of some military academy libraries.

America's federal anti-discrimination programs originated from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. These movements were primarily led by Black Americans, fighting for equality and justice after hundreds of years of slavery. Although slavery was abolished in 1865, history shows that other institutional forms of racism were subsequently implemented.