By CNN
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
President Donald Trump shared a racist video on his social media platform Thursday night that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle, sparking intense condemnation.
The Obamas briefly and suddenly appear near the end of the short video, which promotes false claims that voting machines helped steal the 2020 election, with their faces superimposed onto the bodies of apes. As the images appear, for about one second, the start of the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” plays in the background.
The post, which recalls the racist trope of comparing Black people with monkeys, prompted swift backlash.
GOP Sen. Tim Scott — the only Black Republican in the Senate — called the post racist and said Trump should remove it.
“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it,” the South Carolina Republican, who’s also the chair of the Senate GOP campaign committee, wrote on X. READ MORE…
