Trump hasn't disciplined or fired staffer he says posted video with racist image of Obamas
President Donald Trump said Thursday he hasn't disciplined or fired the staffer he and the White House say posted the video on his social media platform that included a racist animation of the Obamas.
Trump continued to downplay the image depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, a racist trope used to dehumanize Black people, that was shared to his social media account last week.
The post was deleted after widespread backlash, including from several Republicans who had called for Trump to apologize -- which he's so far refused to do.
"Have you fired or disciplined that staffer who posted the video from your account that included the Obamas?" a reporter asked the president on Thursday as he took questions at an unrelated event at the White House.
"No I haven't," Trump said.
"That was a video on, as you know, voter fraud and -- fairly long video -- and they had a little piece and had to do with The Lion King," Trump said.
The minutelong video was posted on Trump's social media platform last Thursday night at 11:44 p.m. It largely focused on debunked claims about the 2020 election, but near the end abruptly showed the Obamas' faces on the bodies of apes without explanation and the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" playing over it.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt first brushed off criticism of the video as "fake outrage" and said the racist animation of the Obamas was from an "internet meme" that depicted Trump as king of the jungle and Democrats as various animals.
But by noon last Friday, a White House official claimed a "staffer erroneously made the post."
Later that night, Trump maintained he "didn't make a mistake" and that he didn't see the entire video before he gave it to "the people" to have it posted to his account.
"Generally, they look at the whole thing, but I guess somebody didn't, and they posted and we took it down," Trump told reporters.
When asked if he condemned the racist portion of the video, Trump said, "Of course I do." But pressed on his message for Americans who were offended by it, Trump said, "Well, I have no message."
That meme video referenced by Leavitt and Trump was shared by the Hardin County Republican Party of Kentucky on Facebook in October. Its chairman issued an apology and deleted the post after swift backlash noting the long history of racist tropes depicting Black people as apes or monkeys -- a tool of slave traders and segregationists.
Trump on Thursday, as he downplayed the incident, said the video where the racist animation of the Obamas originated "was all over the place many times, I believe, for years." It's unclear exactly when the internet meme was created.
