Trump Deletes Obama Ape Video After 12 Hours, Blames White House Staffer for ‘Erroneously’ Posting

(Allison Robbert | Credit: AP) (Screengrab via Truth Social)

President Donald Trump has deleted a controversial video that depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.

Thursday evening, Trump posted a video with baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election that included a short clip at the end of the Obamas’ faces superimposed on apes’ bodies.

The video was furiously criticized by members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, members of the media, and other political commentators as racist.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the post as simply sharing an “Internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle” and dismissed critics as voicing “fake outrage.”

CNN White House correspondent Alayna Treene reported Friday morning that the post had been taken down.

Treene quoted a senior Trump administration official as saying, “A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down.”

The post “was up for 12 hours,” Treene noted.

Politico’s West Wing Playbook scribe Sophia Cai had additional reporting from her own White House source saying, “President Trump didn’t see the video (legitimately didn’t), a staffer posted it.”

Cai added that “only a small handful of staffers have access to [Trump’s] Truth Social account.”

This is a breaking news story and has been updated with additional information.

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