President Donald Trump won’t apologize for the racist video he posted on the social media depicting Former President Barack Obama and Former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.

The video in question, which triggered backlash from both Republicans and Democrats, has since been removed.

“The most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” is how Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican senator, described it. The clip, apparently taken from an X post by conservative meme creator Xerias in October, evokes racist caricatures comparing black people to monkeys.

Trump told reporters that he “didn’t see” the segment with the Obamas.

When asked if he would apologize, he said, “I didn’t make a mistake,” adding, “I mean I look at a lot of thousands of things. I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine. I guess it was a take off on The Lion King and certainly it was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud.”

The White House called the backlash “fake outrage,” and the post was later blamed on a member of the staff.

While Obama didn’t address the video directly, in a 47-minute podcast with podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen released on Saturday, he spoke of the disturbing trend in US politics.

Cohen asked Obama about US “discourse,” which he said “has devolved to a level of cruelty that we haven’t seen before.”

Further, the host called attention to the White House’s claims that the “victims” of ICE are “domestic terrorists,” and told Obama, “just days ago, Donald Trump put a picture of you, your face, on an ape’s body.”

Obama responded: “It’s important to recognise that the majority of the American people find this behaviour deeply troubling.

“It is true that it gets attention. It’s true that it’s a distraction.”

Still, he added that he did meet people who “still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness” while traveling around the country.

“There’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television,” he continued.

“And what is true is that there doesn’t 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?

“That’s been lost.”

He added bluntly: “There’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television.”

Obama went on to criticize the actions by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Trump administration.

“It is important for us to recognize the unprecedented nature of what ICE was doing in Minneapolis, St. Paul, the way that federal agents, ICE agents were being deployed, without any clear guidelines, training, pulling people out of their homes, using five-year-olds to try to bait their parents, all the stuff that we saw, teargassing crowds simply who were standing there, not breaking any laws,” Obama said.

The former president connected the immigration crackdown with wider worries about American values, pointing to recent incidents such as the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. He called it “a heartbreaking tragedy” and described it as “a wake‑up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.” He also said that explanations from the Trump administration about the deaths of Pretti and Renee Good “aren’t informed by any serious investigation.”

This isn’t the first time Trump to share a video involving Obama. Back in July, 2025, he posted an AI generated video of Obama being arrested by FBI agents inside the Oval Office.

The video clip posted on Truth Social showing Obama in handcuffs did not contain any warning that it was fake or not real. The video clip had the caption “No one is above the law,” with the background music being “Y.M.C.A.” by The Village People, a song that Trump frequently uses during his rallies.

Prior to the “arrest,” Obama is shown seated with Trump in the Oval Office, using footage from November 2016, when Trump was the president-elect and Obama was set to leave office.

The video clip also shows Obama in a federal prison.

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