On Friday, former President Donald Trump firmly stated that he has no intention of apologizing for a controversial social media post, asserting, “I didn’t make a mistake.” His comment comes amid a storm of criticism from civil rights advocates and seasoned Republican senators who objected to the post’s portrayal of the nation’s first Black president and first lady.

The White House, in a rare acknowledgment of error, removed the post after significant backlash. This decision was made just hours after Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the criticism as “fake outrage.” The administration later clarified that the post, which had sparked calls for its deletion from both sides of the political aisle, was mistakenly uploaded by a staff member.

The contentious post was part of a series of late-night activity on Trump’s Truth Social account, where he once again reiterated false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. These assertions have been repeatedly debunked by numerous courts and dismissed by his own former Attorney General, who found no evidence of widespread electoral fraud.

Trump has a history of launching personal attacks on the Obamas and has often employed inflammatory and sometimes racially charged rhetoric. This includes promoting the debunked conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and making derogatory comments about predominantly Black countries.

The post was part of a flurry of overnight activity on Trump’s Truth Social account that amplified his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite courts around the country and Trump’s first-term attorney general finding no evidence of systemic fraud.

Trump has a record of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas and of using incendiary, sometimes racist, rhetoric — from feeding the lie that Obama was not a native-born US citizen to crude generalisations about majority-Black countries.

The post came in the first week of Black History Month and days after a Trump proclamation cited “the contributions of black Americans to our national greatness” and “the American principles of liberty, justice, and equality.”

An Obama spokeswoman said the former president, a Democrat, had no response.

Nearly all of the 62-second clip appears to be from a conservative video alleging deliberate tampering with voting machines in battleground states as 2020 votes were tallied.

At the 60-second mark is a quick scene of two jungle primates, with the Obamas’ smiling faces imposed on them.

Those frames originated from a separate video, previously circulated by an influential conservative meme maker.

“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King,” Leavitt said by text.

“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt added.

By noon, the post had been taken down, with responsibility placed on a Trump subordinate.

Trump, answering questions from reporters accompanying him Friday night aboard Air Force One, said the video was about fraudulent elections and that he liked what he saw.

“I liked the beginning. I saw it and just passed it on, and I guess probably nobody reviewed the end of it,” he said.

Asked if he condemned the video’s racism, Trump said, “Of course I do.”

The White House explanation raises questions about control of Trump’s social media account, which he’s used to levy import taxes, threaten military action, make other announcements and intimidate political rivals.

The president often signs his name or initials after policy posts.

The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry about how posts are vetted and when the public can know when Trump himself is posting.

Mark Burns, a pastor and a prominent Trump supporter who is Black, said Friday on X that he’d spoken “directly” with Trump and that he recommended to the president that he fire the staffer who posted the video and publicly condemn what happened.

“He knows this is wrong, offensive, and unacceptable,” Burns posted.

Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke told The Associated Press she does “not buy the White House’s commentary.”

“If there wasn’t a climate, a toxic and racist climate within the White House, we wouldn’t see this type of behaviour regardless of who it’s coming from,” Clarke said.

She added that Trump “is a racist, he’s a bigot, and he will continue to do things in his presidency to make that known”.

Condemnation across the political spectrum

Trump and White House social media accounts frequently repost memes and artificial intelligence-generated videos.

As Leavitt, Trump allies typically cast them as humorous.

This time, condemnations flowed from across the spectrum — along with demands for an apology that doesn’t appear to be coming.

“The guy needs help. I’m sorry he’s representing our country. … It’s horrible that it was this month, but it would be horrible if it was in March also.”

In Atlanta, Bernice King, daughter of the assassinated civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., resurfaced her father’s words: “Yes. I’m Black. I’m proud of it. I’m Black and beautiful.”

Black Americans, she said, “are beloved of God as postal workers and professors, as a former first lady and president. We are not apes.”

The US Senate’s lone Black Republican, Tim Scott of South Carolina, called on Trump to take down the post.

“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” said Scott, who chairs Senate Republicans’ midterm campaign arm.

Another Republican, Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, is white but represents the state with the largest percentage of Black residents. Wicker called the post “totally unacceptable” and said the president should apologise.

Some Republicans who face tough reelections this November voiced concerns, as well.

The result was an unusual cascade of intraparty criticism for a president who has enjoyed a stranglehold over fellow Republicans who stayed silent during previous Trump controversies for fear of a public spat with the president or losing his endorsement in a future campaign.

NAACP President Derrick Johnson called the video “utterly despicable” and pointed to Trump’s wider political concerns that could help explain Republicans’ willingness to speak out.

Johnson asserted that Trump is trying to distract from economic conditions and attention on the Jeffrey Epstein case files.

“You know who isn’t in the Epstein files? Barack Obama,” he said. “You know who actually improved the economy as president? Barack Obama.”

There is a long history in the US of powerful white figures associating Black people with animals, including apes, in demonstrably false, racist ways.

The practice dates to 18th century cultural racism and pseudo-scientific theories used to justify the enslavement of Black people, and later to dehumanise freed Black people as uncivilised threats to white people.

Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote in his famous text “Notes on the State of Virginia” that Black women were the preferred sexual partners of orangutans.

President Dwight Eisenhower, discussing school desegregation in the 1950s, suggested white parents were rightfully concerned about their daughters being in classrooms with “big Black bucks.”

Obama, as a candidate and president, was featured as a monkey or other primates on T-shirts and other merchandise.

In his 2024 campaign, Trump said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” language similar to what Adolf Hitler used to dehumanise Jews in Nazi Germany.

During his first White House term, Trump called a swath of majority-Black, developing nations “shithole countries”.

He initially denied saying it but admitted in December 2025 that he did.

When Obama was in the White House, Trump pushed false claims that the 44th president, who was born in Hawaii, was born in Kenya and was constitutionally ineligible to serve.

Trump, in interviews that helped endear him to conservatives, demanded that Obama prove he was a “natural-born citizen” as required to become president.

But immediately after, he said, falsely, that his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, started the birtherism attacks.

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