<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/usa" rel="" target="" title="US"><span>US</span></a><span> President </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/donald-trump" rel="" target="" title="Donald Trump"><span>Donald Trump</span></a><span> has shared a racist video on his social media platform depicting former US president </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/obama" rel="" target="" title="Barack Obama"><span>Barack Obama</span></a><span> and former first lady </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/michelle-obama" rel="" target="" title="Michelle Obama"><span>Michelle Obama</span></a><span> as apes in a jungle, then removed it hours later amid bipartisan outrage, including from a close ally.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/white-house" rel="" target="" title="White House"><span>White House</span></a><span> blamed a staffer for the video posted to Trump's Truth </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/social-media" rel="" target="" title="Social"><span>Social</span></a><span> account and said the post had been removed.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The statement came after serious backlash, including from GOP Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, who called the post racist and said Trump should remove it.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/australia-weather-rain-and-storms-to-impact-entire-country/c1c681ab-e3b1-4b90-9936-0c52171af944" target="_blank"><strong><span>Huge weather turnaround to bring storms, floods for every state and territory</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House. The President should remove it," the South Carolina Republican, who's also the chair of the Senate GOP campaign committee, wrote on </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/twitter" rel="" target="" title="X"><span>X</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The White House had earlier defended the post and downplayed the response to the video, calling it "fake outrage".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But just before noon, an official told CNN: "A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down."</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/trump-shares-racist-video-depicting-obamas-as-apes-on-truth-social-then-removes-it-amid-bipartisan-outrage/13cbe16d-5107-43fb-8631-cf17cb7a99a4" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>By that time, the video had been up for nearly 12 hours.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A GOP Senate official said Republicans had called Trump to discuss the post with him.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>And it sent the White House into major damage-control mode, sources said, with officials, advisers and allies reaching out to politicians and the media to dispute that Trump himself played any role.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>One White House advisor asserted "the president was not aware of that video, and was very let down by the staffer who put it out".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Another ally sought to place blame on a specific aide.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Obamas briefly and suddenly appear near the end of the short video, which promotes false claims that voting machines helped steal the 2020 election, with their faces superimposed onto the bodies of apes.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>As the images appear, for about one second, the start of the song </span><em><span>The Lion Sleeps Tonight</span></em><span> plays in the background.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>CNN has reached out to the Obamas for comment.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The post, which recalls the racist trope of comparing black people to monkeys, prompted swift backlash, including from several Republicans who have had close relationships with the White House.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Republican Mike Lawler of </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/new-york/9" rel="" target="" title="New York"><span>New York</span></a><span>, who is considered one of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress, condemned the Truth Social post and called on Trump to apologise.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/christopher-columbus-statue-to-be-installed-in-washington/f234d3ff-525e-4664-bbd8-0ca02ee6dc61" target="_blank"><strong><span>Trump taking steps toward installing a Christopher Columbus statue near the White House</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The President's post is wrong and incredibly offensive — whether intentional or a mistake — and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered," Lawler wrote on X.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Another New York Republican facing a tough r-election battle, Nick LaLota, also urged Trump to delete the post.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>And in the minutes before its removal, two close White House allies in the Senate — Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Roger Wicker of Mississippi — went public with their own calls for Trump to apologise, in a sign that criticism within the party was beginning to snowball.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This is totally unacceptable," Wicker, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote on X. "The president should take it down and apologise."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Neither Trump nor the White House has apologised.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>And despite outrage from some GOP lawmakers, the top two Senate Republican leaders, John Thune and John Barrasso, are not commenting on the controversy.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Aides to the senators said they would notify CNN if they decide to respond.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/front-to-kerb-parking-fine-sydney-council-signage/13e8841c-050c-4a36-9bb4-6d3929cb6585" target="_blank"><strong><span>Karina copped a $140 fine for parking the wrong way on a trip to the beach</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But the post's deletion marked an abrupt shift from just hours earlier, when White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the initial outcry.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from </span><em><span>The Lion King</span></em><span>," Leavitt said in a statement.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The clip of the Obamas, which was spliced into the end of a longer video promoting unfounded election conspiracies, appeared to come from a video shared last October by an X user and captioned "President Trump: King of the Jungle."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That original video depicted several prominent Democrats as various animals, as well as showing the Obamas as apes.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The X user who posted that video appeared to be the same one who first posted a video that Trump had shared in October, showing the president wearing a crown and flying a fighter jet dumping what appears to be waste on protesters at a "No Kings" rally.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The office of </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/california" rel="" target="" title="California"><span>California</span></a><span> Governor Gavin Newsom condemned the video in a post on X, writing: "Disgusting behaviour by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/protest-restrictions-remain-in-place-ahead-of-israeli-president-visit/cf060331-5e1e-4445-a7f7-de6178c5f710" target="_blank"><strong><span>Police extend protest restrictions ahead of Israeli president's visit</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The incident is the latest example of Trump drawing criticism for sharing racist content on his social media platform.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Last year, the president posted an apparent AI video depicting Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Later last year, Trump and members of his administration also shared digitally altered images and videos of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a fake moustache and a sombrero, imagery Jeffries publicly described as racist.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump also has a long history of posting and reposting conspiracy theories and other false claims.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But it is very unusual for Trump to take down a social media post — and even more rare to issue an apology or take responsibility for posts insulting large swaths of people.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>As he was campaigning for president in October 2015, Trump retweeted a post questioning the mental fitness of Iowans.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That post was removed a few hours later, and Trump pinned blame on a "young intern" in a statement: "The young intern who accidentally did a Retweet apologises."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He went on to lose the Iowa caucuses.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But Trump has also offered some insight into his social media philosophy, telling CNN in August of that year, "You know, I retweet – I retweet for a reason."</span></div></div>