United States President Donald Trump has defended sharing a video on his official Truth Social account that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes, insisting he made no mistake and owes no apology.
Trump
Speaking late Friday aboard Air Force One to accompanying reporters, Trump said: “I didn’t make a mistake.”
He explained that he had not viewed the entire clip before posting, adding, “I didn’t see the whole thing. I looked at the first part, and it was really about voter fraud in the machines, how crooked it is, how disgusting it is. Then I gave it to the people. Generally, they look at the whole thing. But I guess somebody didn’t.”
Pressed on whether he condemned the video’s racist content—which promoted 2020 election conspiracy theories about voting machines—Trump replied, “Of course I do.”
The video, posted late Thursday, stayed online for about 12 hours before deletion Friday morning amid bipartisan backlash.
The White House initially backed the post via an emailed statement from Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who described it as “an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King,” urging reporters to “stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Hours later, the video was removed from Trump’s Truth Social account.
Ravenewsonline reports no further White House comment as of Saturday.
