Trump Goes Racial, Shares Video Showing Barack and Michelle Obama as Monkeys

US President Donald Trump has sparked outrage after posting a video on his Truth Social platform that depicts former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as dancing monkeys.

The posts, shared early Friday, also included claims from Trump about alleged irregularities in the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Biden previously served as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017, while Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2017 to become president before losing his reelection bid to Biden.

In the roughly one-minute clip, cybersecurity expert Phil Waldron claimed that vote counting in five key states was paused simultaneously and that resuming the count led to a “massive spike” in votes favoring Biden. The video concluded with AI-generated images of Barack and Michelle as monkeys dancing to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” a song from Disney’s The Lion King.

The video quickly drew widespread criticism. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office called it “disgusting” and demanded Republican leaders publicly denounce it. Social media users also condemned the post as racist, intensifying the controversy surrounding the president’s online activity.