The White House removed a video from President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account after it briefly displayed an AI-generated clip depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, prompting bipartisan criticism.
The post appeared just before midnight Thursday and remained online for several hours.
The video ran slightly more than one minute, with a short segment near the end showing the controversial imagery.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the post on Friday morning and said it was part of a longer meme video portraying Trump as the “King of the Jungle” and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.
Leavitt said critics were overreacting and urged media outlets to focus on other issues. She did not initially acknowledge the Obama imagery.
Later Friday, the White House deleted the post and said the president had not seen the clip before it was published. Officials said the removal followed an internal review.
A White House source told the Daily Mail the video was uploaded accidentally by an aide who failed to notice the final seconds of a screen-recorded clip.
The source said the original video auto-played into the Obama segment, and the aide did not trim the footage before posting.
White House officials said Trump did not personally approve the post and was unaware of the imagery at the time it went live.
Access to Trump’s Truth Social account is limited to a small number of aides, according to people familiar with the matter.
Reports have identified senior aides Dan Scavino and Natalie Harp as having access to the account. A source told Semafor that Scavino was not responsible for the post.
The White House declined to say whether Harp or another aide uploaded the video.
Republican lawmakers reacted swiftly once the clip circulated. Senator Tim Scott called the post racist and said it should never have been published.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) contacted the White House to express his objections, according to The Hill.
Utah Sen. John Curtis (R) said the clip was blatantly racist and inexcusable and criticized the delay in removing it, per the Daily Mail.
Democratic lawmakers also condemned the video and questioned how it was allowed to appear on an official presidential account.
White House officials said staff made calls to the president after the backlash escalated and discussed next steps.
Officials maintained the post was an error and not an endorsement of the imagery.
No disciplinary action has been announced, and the White House did not say whether posting procedures would change.
The incident has renewed scrutiny of how content is reviewed before being shared on presidential social media platforms.
Trump has frequently used Truth Social to share videos and memes, often reposting material created by supporters.
The White House said it considers the matter closed following the deletion, though criticism from lawmakers continued into Friday evening.
