A White House source told CNN on Feb. 6 that “The president was not aware of that video, and was very let down by the staffer who put it out.”
The video remained on Truth Social for nearly 12 hours. Even some in the Republican party have publicly called on the president to scrub the racist AI-generated video.
“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve
seen out of this White House. The President should remove it,” Sen. Tim Scott
(R-SC) said in a Twitter post.
On Feb. 5, Trump posted a clip showing the Obamas’ smiling faces superimposed on dancing apes set to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” The video also claimed that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was fraudulent.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially dismissed
the backlash as “fake outrage.” Hours later, the post was removed from Trump’s
Truth Social page. Neither the president nor the White House has apologized.