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President Donald Trump Has Not Disciplined Staffer Allegedly Responsible for Racist Obamas Video
President Donald Trump said he has not fired or disciplined anyone over a racist video of Barack and Michelle Obama that was posted to his Truth Social account.
The White House previously claimed the racist video, which has since been deleted from Trump’s account, was posted by an unnamed staff member on Thursday, February 5. Trump, 79, was asked if he’d taken action against the staffer since that time in a recent press conference.
“No, I haven’t,” he said in a clip shared by ABC News.
The video that was posted to the president’s Truth Social account shared unfounded conspiracy theories that Trump had actually won the 2020 presidential election — an idea that Trump himself has touted for years despite all evidence showing he indeed lost to Joe Biden. The video ended with the Obamas’ faces superimposed on the bodies of two apes, which perpetuates racist stereotypes of Black people with roots in the slave trade and segregation eras.
Despite the backlash to the racist video, when pressed on disciplinary action for the staffer his administration blamed for the post, Trump doubled down on the video’s election claims.
“That was a video on, as you know, voter fraud, and a fairly long video, and they had a little piece that had to do with The Lion King. It’s been very well… it’s been shown all over the place, long before that was posted. That was a very strong, I’m sure you saw it, a very strong piece on voter fraud, and the piece that you’re talking about was all over the place many times, I believe, for years.”
It’s worth noting that there are no ape characters in The Lion King and the animation from the video, while meant to parody The Lion King, was not from the movie itself.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared a statement about the clip shortly after it was released that read: “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
