@sacramentourbanmedia916: Donald Trump said Thursday that he has not fired or disciplined the staff member whom he and the White House say was responsible for posting a video to his social media account that included a racist animation of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama. The video, shared late last week, primarily pushed debunked claims about the 2020 election. Near the end, it briefly showed the Obamas’ faces superimposed onto animated apes while the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” played. The post was removed after drawing widespread criticism, including from some Republicans who urged Trump to apologize. He has declined to do so. When asked by a reporter at a White House event whether the staffer had been punished, Trump responded, “No I haven’t.” He described the clip as a longer video about voter fraud that contained a short segment referencing The Lion King, suggesting the offensive portion was only a small part of the post. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially dismissed backlash as “fake outrage,” characterizing the animation as an internet meme portraying Trump as a lion and Democrats as other animals. By the following day, however, a White House official said a staff member had mistakenly shared the video. Trump later said he did not watch the entire clip before it was uploaded, explaining that others typically review such content before it is posted. “We took it down,” he said, adding that he did not believe he had made a mistake. While he said he condemned the racist imagery when asked directly, he offered no broader message to those offended. A similar meme had previously circulated online, including in a post last year by a local Republican group in Kentucky that later deleted it and issued an apology after criticism highlighting the long history of racist depictions comparing Black people to apes. Trump said Thursday that the video had been circulating online “for years,” though its exact origin remains unclear.#fyp #viral

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Friday 13 February 2026 20:53:43 GMT