The Obama video should take a toll on the president’s political career – but of course it won’t
Despite Donald Trump’s war on woke, he hasn’t (yet) made Black History Month illegal. In fact, on Tuesday the president issued a proclamation declaring February 2026 to be a celebration of Black history and called “upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities”.
Clearly he didn’t get his own memo because, two days later, during one of his frenetic late-night Truth Social ranting sessions, the president posted a racist video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. The minute-long video, made by a third party, amplified false claims that Trump won the 2020 election and showed the first Black president and first lady superimposed on the bodies of primates in a jungle setting, bobbing their heads to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
It would be wrong to call this a mask-off moment because there is no mask with Trump. He has called Somali immigrants “garbage”, talked about “shithole countries”, and described Covid-19 as the “kung flu”. He launched his 2016 presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants drug dealers, criminals and rapists. He repeatedly questioned Obama’s birth certificate. He initiated a so-called Muslim ban and used the word “Palestinian” as a slur. And Palestinians mean so little to him that a plan to build megacities in the ruins of Gaza circulated in the White House.
