Trump says ‘I didn’t see whole thing’ after racist post depicting Obamas as apes deleted
The White House initially defended the video clip as a Lion King meme, then blamed a staff member for posting it ‘erroneously’
The White House first defended the racist post on Friday, then deleted it 12 hours after it appeared.
The minute-long video shared on Trump’s Truth Social network late on Thursday amplified false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result of fraud. Spliced into the video near its end was a brief, apparently AI-generated clip of dancing primates superimposed with the Obamas’ heads.
On Friday night, Trump told reporters he had not watched the entire video before a White House aide posted it to his account.
“I didn’t see the whole thing,” he said. “I looked at the first part, and it was really about voter fraud in the machines, how crooked it is, how disgusting it is. Then I gave it to the people. Generally, they look at the whole thing. But I guess somebody didn’t.”
Asked by reporters if he condemned the clip, Trump said: “Of course I do.” But he declined to apologise, saying: “I didn’t make a mistake. I mean, I give – I look at a lot – thousands of things.”