Washington: US President Donald Trump refused to apologise after sharing and later deleting a video on Truth Social that portrayed former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle, claiming he hadn’t seen the final frames with the offensive imagery and attributing the error to a staffer, according to a report by CNN.
The post, shared Thursday evening, initially highlighted alleged voter fraud in voting machines before shifting to the offensive imagery. It was removed about 12 hours later, after roughly 1.2 million views. “I didn’t see the whole thing,” Trump said. “I looked at the first part, and it was really about voter fraud in the machines, how crooked it is, how disgusting it is. Then I gave it to the people. Generally, they look at the whole thing. But I guess somebody didn’t.”
When reporters later asked Trump if he condemned the video, he responded, “Of course I do.”
A White House official said that “a White House staffer erroneously made the post” and it had been taken down.
When directly asked if he would apologise amid Republican calls to do so, he refused, the CNN report said.
According to Reuters, the post led to criticism from both parties, including from Republican Senator Tim Scott, a Black lawmaker and longtime Trump ally. “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Scott said on X. “The President should remove it.”
Other lawmakers in Trump’s Republican Party called on him to apologise and delete the post. Some Republican lawmakers also privately reached out to the White House about the video, according to a source familiar with the matter, Reuters reported.
Reuters reported that when asked about calls from Republicans and others for him to apologise, Trump said, “I didn’t make a mistake. I mean, I give, I look at a lot – thousands of things.”
“Let it haunt Trump and his racist followers that future Americans will embrace the Obamas as beloved figures while studying him as a stain on our history,” said Ben Rhodes, a former Obama aide, on X.
