Trump says he did not watch the entire racist video before posting it, and says he will not apologize
President Donald Trump told reporters he had not watched the entire video before sharing it on his social media platform late Thursday night, which included racist cartoons of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama with monkey corpses, and suggested he would not apologize for it.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday evening, Trump said he only watched the first part of the since-deleted video that focused on false claims about the 2020 election.
“I think at the end of the movie, there was a kind of image that people didn’t like. And I didn’t like it either,” he said. “But I didn’t see it. I only looked at the first part, and it was really about voter fraud,” Trump said.
During the flight – February 6: US President Donald Trump chats with reporters while on board Air Force One on February 6, 2026 en route to Palm Beach, Florida. The president spends the weekend at his private club, Mar-a-Lago.
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
At the end of the video, the faces of the Obama family suddenly appear On the bodies of monkeys without explanation with the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” playing over them. The video then ends again with images of election conspiracy video footage.
Asked if he would apologize for the video, Trump said: “No, I didn’t do anything wrong. I mean… I look at many, many thousands of things, and I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine.”
Asked if he condemned the racist part of the video, Trump said: “Of course I do.”
US President Donald Trump speaks with the media aboard Air Force One en route to Palm Beach, Florida, US, February 6, 2026.
Ken Cedeno – Reuters
The video was shared on the president’s social media account at 11:44 PM ET on Thursday. Following the backlash after the video was posted, the White House said around noon on Friday that the post had been removed from the president’s page.
The Obama family had no comment when ABC News reached out to its representatives for a response. They have not commented publicly on the post, but later Friday night, they made their first comments since the incident — wishing Team USA good luck at the Winter Olympics in a social media post.
Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama listen during a state funeral at the National Cathedral, on December 5, 2018, in Washington, for former President George H.W.
Alex Brandon/AP
“This is from an online video that depicts President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report something that matters to the American public today,” White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said when first asked for comment early Friday.
Later Friday afternoon, a White House official told ABC News that “a staff member accidentally posted.”
Asked by reporters who posted the video on Friday, Trump said he watched the video first — but not the racist part at the end, he claimed — and then gave it to “people” to post on his account.
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt speaks during a news conference at the White House, February 5, 2026, in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP
The video Leavitt referenced was shared in October by the Hardin County, Kentucky Republican Party on Facebook, prompting the chairman to issue an apology and delete the post after quick backlash pointing to the long history of racist tropes that depict black people as apes or apes — A tool for slave traders and segregationists to strip them of their humanity.
The video that Trump reposted overnight included only photos of the Obama family.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill condemned Trump’s repost overnight, with some calling for it to be removed and seeking an apology from the president.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the Senate’s only black Republican and chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, posted on
Trump told reporters that he later spoke with Scott by phone on Friday.
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 5: Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) questions U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent during a hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on February 5, 2026 in Washington, DC. The Committee met to hear testimony on the Financial Stability Oversight Board’s annual report to Congress.
Kevin Deitch/Getty Images
During the conversation, Trump told Scott that the video had been posted by a staff member in error and that he would remove it, according to a source familiar with the call. This was the post Later It has been removed.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black leader “President Obama and Michelle Obama are brilliant, compassionate, and patriotic Americans. They represent the best of this country. Donald Trump is a vile, disturbed, malicious feeder,” one congressman wrote on
“Every Republican should immediately denounce Donald Trump’s disgusting bigotry,” Jeffries wrote.
“This is completely unacceptable. The President should remove it and apologize,” Republican Senator Roger Wicker wrote in a post.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, wrote in a post: “Racist. Despicable. Hateful. This is dangerous and demeaning to our country – where are the Republicans in the Senate? The President should immediately delete the post and apologize to Barack and Michelle Obama, two great Americans who make Donald Trump look like an envious little man.”
