President Donald Trump ignited a wave of condemnation this week after sharing a video on Truth Social that recycled false claims about the 2020 election and briefly depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as monkeys-imagery widely condemned as racist and dehumanizing.
The clip, posted overnight to Trump's verified account, followed a familiar format: a tightly edited montage alleging that voting machines from Dominion Voting Systems were used to rig the 2020 election, claims that have been repeatedly debunked in court filings, government reviews and media investigations. Near the end of the video, for roughly a second, the Obamas' faces appeared superimposed on primates as a pop song played in the background.
The fleeting nature of the image did little to blunt the reaction. By Thursday morning, criticism had spread rapidly across X and other platforms, with Democratic lawmakers, civil rights advocates and media figures arguing that the clip leaned on one of the oldest racist tropes in American political culture. Several commentators noted that the imagery was easy to miss at first glance, but unmistakable once seen.
The White House did not immediately offer an on-the-record explanation for the post in reports cited by multiple outlets. Some coverage noted uncertainty over whether Trump personally uploaded the video or reviewed it in full before it was shared. Regardless of authorship, critics said, the effect was the same: the president's account amplified the content to millions of followers.
The controversy has also revived scrutiny of Trump's repeated use of manipulated or fabricated visuals targeting political opponents. In 2025, Trump shared an AI-generated video portraying Obama being arrested in the Oval Office and later shown in prison attire, imagery that circulated widely before being labeled misleading by fact-checkers. That episode unfolded amid renewed accusations, unsupported by evidence, that Obama-era officials engaged in conspiracies against Trump.
The latest post arrives as artificial intelligence tools make such videos faster and cheaper to produce, blurring lines between satire, misinformation and propaganda. Media analysts warn that short, emotionally charged clips-especially those designed for rapid sharing-can carry outsized influence, even when their claims have been repeatedly disproven.
Beyond the election falsehoods, the Obama imagery has drawn particular condemnation because of its historical weight. Depicting Black Americans as apes has long been used to demean and dehumanize, a legacy that civil rights groups say makes such portrayals especially damaging when circulated by a sitting president.
Supporters of Trump have sought to downplay the episode as trolling or provocation, arguing that outrage was the intended response. Critics counter that the presidency confers a different standard, because messages shared from the Oval Office help define what is acceptable in public discourse.
The Obamas, who have largely stayed out of day-to-day political sparring since leaving office, again found themselves pulled into a digital confrontation shaped by conspiracy narratives and viral outrage. As the clip continues to circulate, it has underscored how quickly modern political messaging can slide from contested claims into imagery many Americans view as crossing a clear moral line.
