US President Donald Trump has triggered widespread backlash after sharing a video on social media that portrays former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as monkeys.
The video was posted early Friday on Trump’s Truth Social platform alongside two messages in which he again alleged irregularities in the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to President Joe Biden. Biden previously served as Obama’s vice president between 2009 and 2017.
Trump, who won the presidency in 2017 after defeating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, was denied a second term when Biden emerged victorious in the 2020 polls.
The one-minute video features Phil Waldron, a cybersecurity expert, outlining what he described as instances of “treachery” during the election. Waldron claimed that vote counting in five key states was halted simultaneously and alleged that the states relied on election-rigging software embedded in vote-counting machines.
“When reporting and counting resumed, a massive spike occurred that favoured Joe Biden,” Waldron said.
Trump reposted the video twice on his platform.
At the closing moments of the clip, Barack and Michelle Obama are depicted as AI-generated monkey characters dancing to the song ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’, a track popularised by Disney’s The Lion King franchise and famously performed by the animated characters Timon and Pumbaa.
The post drew swift condemnation from political figures. Reacting to the video, a statement from the press office of California Governor Gavin Newsom described it as, “Disgusting behavior by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
