{"id":28276,"date":"2026-02-06T17:40:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/?p=28276"},"modified":"2026-02-06T18:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:28:07","slug":"der-rassistische-praesident-und-die-affen-eine-grenzueberschreitung-die-niemanden-mehr-aufzuruetteln-scheint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/en\/der-rassistische-praesident-und-die-affen-eine-grenzueberschreitung-die-niemanden-mehr-aufzuruetteln-scheint\/","title":{"rendered":"The Racist President and the Apes \u2013 A Line Crossed That No Longer Seems to Shock Anyone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republican Senator Tim Scott found clear words. He called it \u201cthe most racist thing I have seen from this White House\u201d 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 \u201cThe Lion Sleeps Tonight.\u201d The video has now been online for more than eleven hours, without any distancing - a disgrace for an entire country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAn unparalleled racist outrage\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cKing of the Jungle\u201d and Democrats as characters from \u201cThe Lion King.\u201d One should end the \u201cfalse outrage\u201d and report on issues that actually matter to the American public. An apology? None. A clear rejection of racist imagery? Also none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original meme referenced by the spokesperson shows Trump\u2019s 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\u2019s behavior \u201cdisgusting\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n