On February 6, 2026, President Donald Trump shared an AI-generated video on Truth Social depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle. The clip also pushed debunked conspiracy theories about voting machines and the 2020 election. It stayed up long enough for millions to see it. Then it was deleted.
And then came something worse than the video itself: the defense.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s initial response was “please stop the fake outrage.” Not an apology. Not a condemnation. A dismissal. The White House later blamed a staffer for “erroneously” posting the clip, as if the President of the United States has no control over what appears on his own social media account.
Trump, aboard Air Force One, told reporters: “I didn’t make a mistake.”
Let that settle.
### The History That Makes This Hit Different
Comparing Black people to apes is not new. It is one of the oldest tools of dehumanization in the American racist playbook. Scientific racism in the 18th and 19th centuries used ape comparisons to argue that Black people were biologically inferior. Jim Crow caricatures relied on the same imagery. It has been used to justify slavery, segregation, police violence, and every form of institutional racism that persists today.
When a sitting president shares that imagery about his predecessor (the first Black president), it is not a social media mishap. It is a signal. It tells every white supremacist watching that the highest office in the country sees nothing wrong with reducing Black people to animals. It tells every Black family in America that the person who commands the military and the Department of Justice views them as less than human.
### The Bipartisan Reaction That Was Not Bipartisan Enough
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” That statement was significant. It was also lonely. The overwhelming majority of Republican elected officials said nothing.
Obama himself responded during an interview: “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.” He added that many Americans “find this behavior deeply troubling.”
Troubling is generous. The word is degrading. The word is dangerous. The word is intentional.
### AI Made This Possible. Silence Made It Acceptable.
The video was AI-generated. That matters. We are entering an era where anyone with basic tools can create photorealistic content depicting public figures in any scenario imaginable. When the President of the United States amplifies that content with racist intent, it normalizes AI as a weapon of racial degradation.
This is not hypothetical. If AI-generated racist imagery targeting the Obamas faces no consequences at the presidential level, what happens when it targets local Black politicians? School board candidates? Activists? Ordinary people?
The technology is neutral. The application is not.
### Where Hip-Hop Fits
Hip-hop has been calling out this kind of dehumanization for decades. When Public Enemy made “Fight the Power,” they were fighting exactly this: the reduction of Black life to caricature. When Kendrick Lamar performs at the Super Bowl and then gets nominated for Entertainer of the Year at the NAACP Image Awards, he is asserting Black humanity in spaces that have historically rejected it.
The NAACP Image Awards air February 28 with the theme “We See You.” That phrase now carries a double meaning. We see the talent. We see the excellence. We also see the president who shared a video depicting a Black family as animals and called it not a mistake.
### The Takeaway
This moment requires more than outrage. It requires documentation, accountability, and memory. The video was deleted, but the intent behind it does not delete. The approval ratings show Black Americans are watching: Trump’s approval among Black voters sits between 15% and 24% in February 2026 polling, with disapproval consistently above 60%.
Save the screenshots. Remember the silence of the politicians who said nothing. And vote accordingly. That is what Rev. Jesse Jackson would have told you. That is what the culture demands.
