Trump's social media account removes video portraying Obamas as apes after criticism

U.S. President Donald Trump's social media account on Friday removed an AI-generated video that portrayed former U.S. President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes, after widespread criticism, reported Xinhua.

"Praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House. The president should remove it," Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, said Friday morning on X.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on X that the Obamas "represent the best of this country," and "every single Republican must immediately denounce Donald Trump's disgusting bigotry."

The short clip is part of a longer video created by a MAGA meme account and was posted on Trump's Truth Social account at 11:44 pm Eastern Time on Thursday, according to Axios, noting that it stayed up for about 12 hours.

The full video includes other Democrats as well, including former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

White House officials previously defended the post. "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.

Many U.S. news outlets and commentators have repeatedly described Trump's remarks as racist.