As you all know, trump posted a blatantly racist video on his social media account late last night, depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
After howls of shock and horror from the general public, the post was taken down today, after about 12 hours. No apologies. A staffer was blamed for the “mistake” for posting on an account, which is used by the POTUS to announce major national and international policy initiatives.
But not before White House PS Karoline Leavitt scolded reporters to “stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Here are some reactions from the media and noted luminaries, some from across the aisle.
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President Trump posted a blatantly racist video clip of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes, the latest in a long pattern by Trump of promoting offensive stereotypes about Black Americans and others. The White House press secretary dismissed criticism as “fake outrage.”
— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) 2026-02-06T16:25:04.125685Z
How many republicans will denounce this? Let’s not hold our breath.
www.theguardian.com/...
Yet Trump’s highly racist and offensive late-night Truth Social post depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes broke through the numbness barrier to register on the political Richter scale at a level few of his many previous insults ever achieved.
That Trump succeeded in surpassing his own previous levels of debased standards was only emphasized by the decision, taken under fire, to delete the post hours after the White House had initially defended it.
That rare climbdown and the attempts to pin the blame on an anonymous White House staffer is unlikely to prevent the episode from illuminating a topic that much of the media has seemed reluctant to confront head on; that Trump’s behavior, online and in public, has been growing more reckless and raises serious questions about his mental acuity and his fitness for office.
The person who needs to be fired is Mr. trump.
Schumer calls trump a “small, envious man.”
These are the true colors of the whole party, not just trump.
Go Hakeem Jeffries, make some good trouble.
Pelosi is not mincing her words.
Yes, they are.
Now, let’s get every voter to absorb this.
We may not be surprised by this, but many in the electorate will be. Let’s make sure they see this.
“He is the lowest of the low” -
A few tepid Republican responses
A few republican leaders have offered a few words of regret — the midterms must be coming. But no doubt they will stand by their man, They have thru all the hundreds of other racist posts and policies so far.
Even an apology will not wash off the stains on our history.
Other republicans expressing disapproval include Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
There is hope
Yes, this disgusting episode can move the needle on the moral arc of the country, Let’s keep pushing.
He probably took it down because of some calls from Congress about how he is decimating their chances in the midterms. And there is hope that most Americans will feel repulsed by this,
Some heart-warming posts
BrooklynDad puts it eloquently — “The Obamas will be just fine”
Epilogue
Some might argue that is yet another distraction from the Esptein files, that we should not give air to this story, that the image is revolting and should be hidden. One might also argue that, for us activists, it is not about how much revulsion we feel; it is about how the story can generate revulsion among the electorate and how we can get more people to dump trump. Except for hard-core MAGA and trump’s enablers in Congress and social media, this story can be yet another nail in trump’s and the GOP’s coffin, come November.
Every republican candidate must be asked why they did not condemn this post, why they did not insist on a trump apology on prime-time TV, why they did not demand a resignation.
Let’s channel our anger towards turning the country around and bringing back sanity, competency, honesty and decency to our politics.
Update
trump now contradicts the previous excuse. Says he saw the video and gave it to “the people” to post it, but didn’t see the racist part of the video. No apologies. No firings.
Additional Coverage
- Trump removes racist video depicting the Obamas as apes — www.nbcnews.com/…
- Trump’s toxic, racist video surpasses previous levels of debasement — www.theguardian.com/...
- Trump removes video with racist clip depicting Obamas as apes — www.bbc.com/…
- Trump Deletes Racist Video of Obamas After Outcry — www.nytimes.com/...
