Donald Trump recently highlighted support for voter ID among Black Americans in a puzzling social media post. This came shortly after he faced significant backlash for sharing a controversial meme featuring the Obamas.
On Friday, Trump shared an image from a CNN segment, illustrating that Americans across different racial groups largely favor voter ID laws. The data revealed 85% support among white Americans, 82% among Latinos, and 76% among Black voters. Notably, Trump emphasized the percentage of Black voter support by encircling it in his post.
Promoting voter ID has been a key focus of Trump’s presidency, despite opposition from Democratic lawmakers. Critics argue that such policies could potentially disenfranchise large segments of the population, including Black communities.
Trump’s emphasis on voter ID followed a late-night post that stirred widespread disapproval, even drawing criticism from prominent Republicans. The meme he shared depicted the Obamas as apes, causing an uproar on social media.
The contentious clip was tied to Trump’s ongoing claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. It ended with an AI-generated image showing the Obamas’ faces on ape bodies, accompanied by The Tokens’ classic song, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
The clip focused on his accusations of fraud during the 2020 election. At the end of the video, an AI clip flashes up showing the Obamas’ faces superimposed on ape bodies, set to The Tokens’ song The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
The White House blamed the post on an unnamed junior staffer, despite press secretary Karoline Leavitt this morning slamming ‘fake outrage’ over the meme.
‘A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down,’ a spokesman for the President told the Daily Mail on Friday.
President Donald Trump during an event revealing ‘TrumpRx,’ a website for purchasing discounted prescriptions, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus in Washington, DC, on Thursday
The President on Friday posted a screengrab from a recent CNN broadcast showing that across all races Americans overwhelmingly support voter ID: 85 percent for white, 82 percent for Latino and 76 percent for black voters. The proportion of black voters was highlighted with a circle in Trump’s post
President Barack Obama (R) and first lady Michelle Obama walk across the South Lawn after returning to the White House on Marine One July 12, 2016
The President received widespread backlash over accusations of racism after he posted a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes
Leavitt earlier told the Daily Mail: ‘This is 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.’
Trump deleted his post after South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, called it ‘the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.’
The clip belongs to a pro-Trump account on X but was reposted by the President on his Truth Social platform.
Other prominent Republican senators joined Scott in demanding that Trump take down the video.
Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi posted on X: ‘This is totally unacceptable. The president should take it down and apologize.’
Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska wrote: ‘Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this. The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize.’
Trump’s video sparked condemnation from the senators’ Democratic colleagues.
Senator Tim Scott called the video ‘the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially doubled down on the President’s post
‘Disgusting behavior by the President,’ California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office wrote on X. ‘Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.’
Democratic political strategist Adam Parkhomenko posted: ‘This is overt racism. Full stop. There’s no “misinterpretation” and no excuse. This is who he is, who he’s always been, and why he should never be anywhere near power again.’
Trump’s longstanding feud with Obama stretches back decades, beginning when he first promoted claims that the 44th president was born outside the United States.
Since starting his second term, Trump has intensified attacks against Obama on social media by accusing the former president of ‘treason’.
The President claimed Obama betrayed the US by spying on his presidential campaign over accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump has posted AI memes on Truth Social showing Obama’s arrest and imprisonment.
Trump’s video of the Obamas has been liked more than 2,500 times and reposted more than 1,100 times on Truth Social.
The Daily Mail has contacted the Obamas for comment.
