A White House insider is blaming a ‘boomer’ for its embarrassing ‘racist’ post depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
The video, posted on President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account just before midnight on Thursday, features a few seconds of an AI-generated meme showing the Obamas’ faces overlayed on dancing apes.
The post has evoked outrage from both sides of the aisle, with notable Republican lawmakers calling the creation ‘racist’ and beneath the White House.
‘This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,’ White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Friday morning. ‘Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.’
The short segment showing the Obamas as apes only lasted seconds and commenced via autoplay; another video about elections played before it. The video is one minute and two seconds long; the portion showing the Obamas is only about two seconds of the clip.
Despite Leavitt’s defense, the White House has now deleted the original post and claims that an unnamed aide to the president is responsible for publishing the video.
The deletion and the explanation that it came from an aide and not Trump came hours after Leavitt’s statement.
One White House insider told the Daily Mail that the clip was posted by mistake by a ‘boomer’ who didn’t spot the Obama clip at the end of the original election video.
President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account reposted a video that contained a brief clip depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes
The President received widespread backlash after he posted a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes
White House sources have since said that the clip was never seen by Trump before it was posted to his official account. One White House insider told the Daily Mail that the controversial video was posted on accident by a ‘boomer’
‘It’s an obvious screen recording and the boomer who posted it on X didn’t trim off the excess when the next reel started to auto play,’ the Trump official shared. ‘The aide didn’t notice that one second portion at the end of the video and it was never seen by the president.’
Reports indicate that the number of people within the White House with access to the president’s personal Truth Social account is limited.
Top Trump aides Dan Scavino and Natalie Harp are both reported to have access to the account.
One source with knowledge of the situation told Semafor that Scavino was not responsible for the post.
The White House did not respond to the Daily Mail when asked if Harp was the aide behind the controversial post.
Furious Republican reactions to the post came swiftly on Friday morning.
‘Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,’ Republican Senator Tim Scott, a close ally of Trump who is black, posted on social media.
Top Trump aide Natalie Harp is reported to have access to Trump’s Truth Social account. The White House did not respond to the Daily Mail’s inquiry about whether Harp was the one who posted the clip
Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, a Republican, called the White House to express his displeasure with the Trump post
Congressman Byron Donalds, another black Republican, reportedly called the White House to express his dismay with the ‘racist’ post, The Hill reports.
Utah Senator John Custis, another member of the GOP, called the clip ‘blatantly racist and inexcusable.’
‘It should never have been posted or left published for so long,’ he added.
Many other GOP lawmakers and scores of Democrats have condemned the post.
Senator Scott’s office did not reply to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
