US President Donald Trump has removed a video from his Truth Social media account that depicted former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as monkeys.
Trump posted the video twice early Friday morning, alleging anomalies in the 2020 presidential election he lost to Joe Biden.
In the video, Barack and Michelle only appeared at the end, archived here, as AI-generated monkey figures dancing to the tune of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’, a song popularised by Disney’s ‘The Lion King’, most notably performed by Timon and Pumbaa, a meerkat and a warthog.
Trump’s post triggered backlash, including from Republicans, who said it was “unacceptable” and “racist” and asked Trump to take it down and apologise.
Earlier, Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, defended the video, saying it was from an “internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from ‘The Lion King’.”
“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt said. But a White House official later told NBC News that a “staffer erroneously made the post”. The post was removed shortly before noon.
