Fury after racist social media post from Pres. Trump

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - The White House was in damage control mode Friday after President Donald Trump re-posted a video online that included imagery depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. The one-minute video was posted on the President’s Truth Social account. Lawmakers from both parties labeled the post racist.

After being denounced by both Republicans and Democrats, President Donald Trump has removed a racist video that was posted on his social media account on Truth Social Thursday night.

The video posted late Thursday included images that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle.

The post drew an immediate reaction from South Carolina Senator Tim Scott - the only Black Republican in the Senate – who wrote on X: “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”

And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on social media – “Every single Republican must immediately denounce Donald Trump’s disgusting bigotry.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt initially downplayed the criticism of the video, calling it “fake outrage.”

But in the aftermath of the bipartisan uproar, the White House deleted the President’s post. The removal occured some 12 hours after the post first appeared on the President’s Truth Social account. Senior administration officials claimed that a White House staffer mistakenly made the post.

February is Black History Month. A growing number of Congressional Republicans are speaking out - publicly calling the post racist and calling for President Trump to apologize. As of early Friday evening, the White House had not issued an apology.

The president did not answer reporters’ questions about the video when as he departed the White House for his weekend trip to Mar-A-Lago, Florida.

Later, while speaking to reporters on-board Air Force One, President Trump was immediately asked to respond to the controversy. He said, when asked about the video and the Truth Social post, “No. I looked at it. I didn’t see the whole thing. I gave it to the people, they posted it.” He later added that he did not make a mistake.