{"id":131140,"date":"2026-02-15T04:02:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T04:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/obama-addresses-racist-video-shared-by-trump-depicting-him-as-an-ape\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T04:02:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T04:02:54","slug":"obama-addresses-racist-video-shared-by-trump-depicting-him-as-an-ape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/obama-addresses-racist-video-shared-by-trump-depicting-him-as-an-ape\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama addresses racist video shared by Trump depicting him as an ape"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 \u2013 Former US President Barack Obama has indirectly addressed a racist video posted on President Donald Trump\u2019s social media, telling a podcast host that the \u201cshame\u201d and \u201cdecorum\u201d that once guided public officials is now lost.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The offensive video included a clip depicting Obama and his wife Michelle as apes, which drew widespread criticism from Democrats and Republicans.<\/p>\n

The White House initially defended the video, calling backlash \u201cfake outrage\u201d. The post was later blamed on a staff member and deleted.<\/p>\n

Obama spoke to liberal podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen, who asked the first black US president about the tone of political discourse. Cohen cited Trump\u2019s post among several recent controversies.<\/p>\n

The clip \u2013 set to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight \u2013 was included at the end of a video Trump\u2019s Truth Social account shared containing unfounded claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

The post led to outrage from politicians, including from senior members of Trump\u2019s Republican party.<\/p>\n

Senator Tim Scott \u2013 the only black Republican senator \u2013 described it as \u201cthe most racist thing I\u2019ve seen out of this White House\u201d.<\/p>\n

The clip recalls racist caricatures comparing black people to monkeys, and appears to have been taken from an X post shared by conservative meme creator Xerias in October.<\/p>\n

Trump has told reporters that he \u201cdidn\u2019t see\u201d the part of the video that showed the Obamas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t make a mistake,\u201d he told reporters when asked whether he planned to apologise.<\/p>\n

The 47-minute podcast featuring Obama was released on Saturday. The episode begins with the host asking him to comment on US \u201cdiscourse\u201d, which he says \u201chas devolved to a level of cruelty that we haven\u2019t seen before\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cohen notes claims by the White House that the \u201cvictims\u201d of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are \u201cdomestic terrorists\u201d, and adds \u201cjust days ago, Donald Trump put a picture of you, your face, on an ape\u2019s body\u201d.<\/p>\n

Obama responds by saying: \u201cIt\u2019s important to recognise that the majority of the American people find this behaviour deeply troubling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is true that it gets attention. It\u2019s true that it\u2019s a distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Obama said that while travelling around the US, he found himself meeting people who \u201cstill believe in decency, courtesy, kindness\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this sort of clown show that\u2019s happening in social media and on television,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what is true is that there doesn\u2019t 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, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been lost.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 \u2013 Former US President Barack Obama has indirectly addressed a racist video posted on President Donald Trump\u2019s social media, telling a podcast host that the \u201cshame\u201d and \u201cdecorum\u201d that once guided public officials is now lost. The offensive video included a clip depicting Obama and his wife Michelle as apes, which drew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}