Donald Trump faced massive backlash after posting a video portraying Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
The video has since been removed, but the U.S. president has refused to apologize.
Now, Obama has finally responded.
”As I’m traveling around the country…”
Former President Barack Obama is breaking his silence after President Donald Trump shared a shocking video on social media depicting him and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.
The now-deleted clip, posted on Truth Social earlier this month, sparked outrage across the political spectrum and reignited tensions between the two political heavyweights.
In an interview with YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen released on Saturday, Feb. 14, Obama, 64, called the video “deeply troubling,” describing the clip showing their faces superimposed on animated apes dancing to The Lion Sleeps Tonight as emblematic of a disturbing trend in U.S. politics.
“It’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,” Obama said. “It is true that it gets attention, that it’s a distraction, but as I’m traveling around the country … you meet people [and] they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness. And there’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television.”
Obama also addressed the erosion of standards in the presidency, noting, “There doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office. That’s been lost.” He added bluntly: “There’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television.”
The video itself, posted on Feb. 5, drew immediate bipartisan condemnation.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to dismiss the uproar, telling TMZ to “stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.” Even some of Trump’s own party members criticized the post.
Republican Senator Tim Scott called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”
Trump, 79, has refused to apologize, claiming the video was the work of an unnamed staffer and insisting, “No, I didn’t make a mistake. I mean I look at a lot of thousands of things. I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine. I guess it was a take off on The Lion King and certainly it was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud.”
Obama’s response wasn’t limited to the viral video. He also criticized actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Trump administration, calling them “deeply concerning” and “dangerous.”
“A wake-up call to every American”
He highlighted the federal crackdown in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, saying, “It is important for us to recognize the unprecedented nature of what ICE was doing in Minneapolis, St. Paul, the way that federal agents, ICE agents were being deployed, without any clear guidelines, training, pulling people out of their homes, using five-year-olds to try to bait their parents, all the stuff that we saw, teargassing crowds simply who were standing there, not breaking any laws.”
Obama tied the immigration crackdown to broader concerns about U.S. values, referencing recent tragedies like the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. He called it “a heartbreaking tragedy” and “a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.” He added that explanations from the Trump administration regarding Pretti and Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman killed by an immigration agent, “aren’t informed by any serious investigation.”
Reflecting on the political climate and the public’s role, Obama emphasized, “The American people will ultimately decide how they feel about these actions when they head to the ballot box … people still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness. And we’re going to fight back and we’re gonna push back with the truth.”
