Obama Hits Back at Trump Over Racist AI Meme, Turning War Into a ‘Video Game’

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

Former President Barack Obama offered his take on President Donald Trump posting an AI-generated image of him and his wife depicted as apes earlier in the year, which was widely decried as blatant racism.

Obama spoke about the moment in a new interview with The New Yorker’s Peter Slevin — published on Monday.

“I don’t take it personally,” Obama said. “I mean, I’m always offended when my wife and kids get dragged into things, because they didn’t choose this…That’s a line that even people whose politics I deeply reject, I would expect them to care about. I would never talk about somebody’s family in that way.”

Slevin reported more details on his conversation with Obama, noting that the former president said he was actually more concerned about the Trump White House posting AI-generated images and memes that treat war and death “like a video game” and showed “excrement dumped on ordinary citizens.”

“I mean, I’m a fair target in the sense of, yeah, you can feel free to pick on me, because I’m your own size,” Obama said of Trump’s posts that target everyday Americans.

Obama had previously discussed Trump’s February post depicting him and Michelle Obama as apes, which the president refused to apologize for.

“You know, it is true that it gets attention. It’s true that it’s a distraction. But, you know, as I’m traveling around the country, as you’re traveling around the country, you meet people. They still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness. And there’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television,” Obama told Brian Tyler Cohen on his popular podcast in the days after the post. “And what is true is that there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum. And a sense of propriety and respect for the office, right? So that’s been lost.”

Obama also discussed his current role in the media ecosystem with Slevin, arguing he doesn’t want to diminish himself to becoming a commentator.

“For me to function like Jon Stewart, even once a week, just going off, just ripping what was happening — which, by the way, I’m glad Jon’s doing it — then I’m not a political leader, I’m a commentator,” Obama argued, adding, “The media environment is so difficult that people don’t even know all the stuff I am doing, right? And, I think, when they do see me, then the sense is well, why isn’t he doing that every day instead of just during a midterm election, or during a referendum campaign around gerrymandering, or what have you?”

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