Khaberni - After its deletion, the American President Donald Trump commented on the full video which depicts former Democratic President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as monkeys.
Trump stated that he did not feel that he had made a mistake, adding that he had watched the beginning of the video, which focused on allegations of election fraud, and had handed it to unnamed staff members to publish.
The American president continued in statements to reporters on board Air Force One: «No one knew this was in the end, if they had watched it, they would have seen it, and maybe they would have had the common sense to delete it».
The White House deleted on Friday a video posted on President Donald Trump's social media account, which depicts former Democratic President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama as monkeys, after criticisms were levied against the American president for summoning racist images used for a long time to strip African-descended individuals of their humanity.
A White House official, who refused to be named, said that a White House staff member shared the post "by mistake", adding that the post was deleted.
Republican outrage
This statement came hours after White House spokesperson, Carolaine Levitt, described the negative reaction to the video clips, including from several leading Republican lawmakers, as "manufactured outrage".
Late Thursday evening, the American President Donald Trump shared a one-minute clip amplifying his claims that his defeat in the 2020 elections was due to fraud, claims which were later proven to be false. The clip included a scene that appears to be generated by artificial intelligence, of dancing monkeys with the faces of Obama and his wife mounted on them.
The post quickly sparked criticism from prominent political figures on Trump's network (Truth Social), including Senator Tim Scott, a Republican ally of Trump and of African descent.
Scott stated on the X platform: "I hope this is fabricated because it's the most racist thing I've seen coming out of this White House... The president must delete it".
Before the deletion, White House spokesperson Carolaine Levitt said the post caused "manufactured outrage", adding that "this is taken from a satirical video online depicting President Trump as the king of the jungle and depicting the Democrats as characters from the movie The Lion King". Trump's clip included a song from this musical movie. A spokesperson for Obama declined to comment.
White supremacists have long depicted African-descended people as monkeys in campaigns to strip them of their humanity and impose dominance over Blacks.
Ben Rhodes, a former advisor to Obama on X stated: "Let this haunt Trump and his racist followers so that Americans in the future remember the Obamas as beloved figures while they study him (Trump) as a blot on our history".
Trump has previously shared racist posts and has also long promoted a false conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. In December, Trump described Somalis as "junk" that should be thrown out of the country.
Proponents of civil rights say that Trump's way of speaking is becoming bolder and increasingly allowed and normalized politically.
