(Washington) Donald Trump defended himself on Friday from any racism, saying that he had not seen the extract of a video showing Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys before it was published on the personal account of the American president on his social network and which triggered a whirlwind of political indignation.
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The video, since removed, remained online for a dozen hours, enough time to cause an outcry even in his Republican camp, where criticism of him is almost non-existent.
“I only watched the first part” of the video “and I did not see the whole”, “no one knew what was at the end”, part which includes the images of the first black president of the United States and his primate wife, Donald Trump ended up responding at the end of the day, leaving Washington aboard the presidential plane Air Force One.
“I am the least racist president you have had in a long time,” he added, before confirming that he condemned the racist content of the video.
Before these statements, the White House increased its delays and even backpedaled on the broadcast of this video.
“Smoking”
The spokesperson for the 79-year-old American president, Karoline Leavitt, initially denounced “false indignation” and attacked the media which reported it.
Then, in the face of outrage, a senior executive official told AFP that “a White House employee had published this content by mistake.”
“No one believes this smoke-out of the White House, especially since they had initially defended this publication,” Kamala Harris, the billionaire’s Democratic rival during the last presidential election, scathed on the social network “We all know perfectly well who Donald Trump is and what his beliefs are,” added the opponent of Indian and Jamaican origin.
“It’s a good thing that this content was removed, it should never have been published and it does not represent the nation that we are,” Republican Senator Katie Britt also reacted on X.
The American presidency has not specified anything about this anonymous employee, nor about the management of Donald Trump’s Truth Social account, which has become his official communication channel, as much as an outlet.
The now removed video, a little over a minute long, presents supposed evidence of manipulation of the 2020 vote, which the Republican president insists against all evidence of having won.
At the end, a montage of the Obama couple very quickly appears, their hilarious faces on a monkey’s body, the jungle as a backdrop.
The Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, potential presidential candidate in 2028, denounced “despicable behavior”.
“Racist”
Indignation has spread to the conservative camp.
Conservative senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican elected to the upper house of Congress, spoke on X of “the most racist thing (he has) seen come out of this White House”.
Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker called the content “totally unacceptable.”
The montage was originally published by the American far-right website Patriot News Outlet, and republished twice by Donald Trump.
The White House initially followed its usual strategy, which consists of defending or amplifying the president’s messages.
“This is taken from a video posted on the internet depicting President Trump as king of the jungle, and Democrats as “Lion King” characters. Stop this fake outrage and report on something that, today, means something to the American public,” said spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, in a statement sent to AFP.
Animosity
The video Karoline Leavitt is referring to is a cartoon created by the pro-Trump account @xerias_x. We see several democratic figures, such as Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, represented as animals, with Donald Trump represented as a lion.
But the conspiratorial video on electoral fraud broadcast on the account of the American president only includes one very short extract from this cartoon, the one which shows the Obamas as primates.
Donald Trump has a particular animosity against Barack Obama – who remained silent on this affair – a very popular figure with Americans.
He only calls him “Barack Hussein Obama,” using his middle name, and has helped spread conspiracy theories around the Democrat’s nationality.
During his campaign, the Republican leader increased his violent statements against immigrants and spread false information with racist overtones.
