Trump refuses apology for video depicting Obama as apes amid growing backlash

President Donald Trump addressed the mounting controversy surrounding a video that depicts former Democratic President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes. The White House initially defended the racist post on Friday but deleted it 12 hours after it appeared.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said: “ I didn’t make a mistake”. He further said that he had only seen the beginning of the video before it was posted by a staff member and didn't know it contained the depiction of the Obamas.”

The White House initially defended the clip as an “internal memo video” and told critics to “stop the fake outrage”. Asked by reporters if he condemned the clip, Trump said, “ Of course I do, " but he declined to apologize, saying, “I didn't make a mistake. I mean, I give-I look at a lot-thousands of things.”

Following intense criticism from several Republican senators, the post was removed from Trump’s Truth Social account.

As criticism mounted, a White House official said the post had been taken down. The clip of the Obamas was added to the end of a minute-long video which incorporated claims of a voting conspiracy in Michigan during the 2020 presidential election.

Trump has a history of criticizing Obama that dates back to before his first term as president. He regularly disseminated falsehoods that the Hawaii-born Obama was actually born in Kenya and was therefore ineligible to be president.

Derrick Johnson, national president of the NAACP, said that Donald Trump’s video is “ blatantly racist, disgusting, and utterly despicable.”