The Racist President and the Apes – A Line Crossed That No Longer Seems to Shock Anyone

Republican Senator Tim Scott found clear words. He called it “the most racist thing I have seen from this White House” and demanded that the president delete the video. He was referring to a clip that Donald Trump reshared on his platform Truth Social on February 5. It depicts Barack and Michelle Obama as dancing apes, their faces mounted onto animated animal bodies, set to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” The video has now been online for more than eleven hours, without any distancing - a disgrace for an entire country.

“An unparalleled racist outrage”

The clip was inserted at the end of a longer video once again spreading unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The material showed the Obamas with superimposed faces on two animated apes dancing to the well known melody. No satire label, no ironic framing, no comment. Simply shared. And thereby legitimized by the president himself. When asked, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt responded with a defensive formula. It was an internet meme portraying the president as “King of the Jungle” and Democrats as characters from “The Lion King.” One should end the “false outrage” and report on issues that actually matter to the American public. An apology? None. A clear rejection of racist imagery? Also none.

The original meme referenced by the spokesperson shows Trump’s head on the body of a lion. Other politicians appear alongside him, including Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. But that changes nothing about the specific sequence featuring the Obamas. Depicting Black people as apes is not a harmless joke, but a historically charged motif used for centuries to dehumanize. Anyone who deliberately spreads such imagery knows what they are doing. Gavin Newsom called the president’s behavior “disgusting” and urged every Republican officeholder to distance themselves from it. Yet from many political capitals there was striking silence. No united front against open degradation. No noticeable pressure from international circles that otherwise quickly find admonishing words. Instead, silence.

It is not the first time Trump has shared such content. Back in July he circulated an artificially generated video showing Barack Obama being arrested and placed in a jail cell, accompanied by the song “Y.M.C.A.” Even then, scenes were manipulated, political opponents ridiculed, and the image of the rule of law distorted. In another case, an artificially created clip was published portraying Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries with a fake sombrero and mustache. The method is familiar, the effect calculated. What is new is not the transgression. What is new is the normalization. A president spreads racist portrayals of his predecessor, and part of the political class responds with a shrug or tactical restraint. Even the reference to it being a “meme” cannot conceal that a deliberately degrading image is being put into circulation.

Yesterday we discussed whether to address this topic. The decision to do so today was easy. Those who remain silent become spectators. And those who watch while the office of the president turns into a platform for racist content should not be surprised later when the boundary shifts even further. What is happening here is not a triviality in digital space. It is racism in its purest form and everyone is watching. And the silence of many responsible figures is a failure across the board.

Update 6:15 p.m. (CET) – Trump has now deleted the video after criticism from Republican ranks and civil rights organizations grew increasingly loud. The damage will remain – as will the silence from the international political community.