President Trump late Friday addressed a video posted to his social media account that included a racist depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, telling reporters he looked at the beginning of the now-deleted video but didn’t see the part that showed the former president and first lady.
“I just looked at the first part,” the president said on Air Force One, noting that most of the video was about alleged voter fraud. “I didn’t see the whole thing. I guess during the end of it, there was some kind of a picture that people don’t like. I wouldn’t like it either, but I didn’t see it.”
He suggested that he gave the video to a staffer, saying “somebody slipped” and posted it to his Truth Social account shortly before midnight on Thursday without spotting the depiction of the Obamas in the last few seconds.
“Generally they’d look at the whole thing, but I guess somebody didn’t, and they posted,” Mr. Trump said. “We took it down as soon as we found out about it.”
The White House initially defended the social media post on Friday. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt called criticism of the video “fake outrage,” and said the image of the Obamas’ faces edited onto the bodies of apes was part of a meme that depicted Democrats as characters from the Lion King.
But a litany of Republican lawmakers quickly condemned the post and urged Mr. Trump to take it down, with Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina calling it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” Several Republicans also pushed the White House to apologize.
Mr. Trump told reporters he spoke with Scott, the Senate’s sole Black Republican, confirming earlier reporting from CBS News. The post was deleted from Truth Social soon after their conversation.
Asked if he intends to apologize for the post, Mr. Trump responded: “No, I didn’t make a mistake.” But he said he “of course” condemns the racist portion of the video.
