‘Most racist thing to come out of the White House’: Internet responds to Trump’s disgusting Obama memes
Donald Trump’s recently posted Barack and Michelle Obama memes are being called “the most racist thing to come out of the White House.” South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott saw the posts in question on social media and said he was “Praying it was fake” while arguing that “The President should remove it.”
Scott is notably the only Black Republican in the senate. (It should be worth noting that the Senator’s comments here actually underline that there has been other racist posting from the White House as well…) The social media firestorm around these Truth Social posts has reached escape velocity.
In the video we’re referring to, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama’s heads are photoshopped onto monkeys in the jungle. (The nuances here have to be pointed out as well. Michelle is fashioned into a bigger animal in the video, as power always seems to dance around the edges of these racist interactions as well.) Even though the clip lives on Truth Social, Twitter, Threads, and other social media sites are all discussing the post in question. Some folks online are surprised by the new depths this administration finds every day. But, to be honest, a lot of people never paid attention until their material existence was otherwise affected.
White House correspondent Simon Ateba asked his followers about the meme. He notes that a lot of the people who interacted actually like President Trump. But, they feel like showing the Obamas as monkeys is crossing the line. Some of them are wishing that the President would be focused on the country rather than sharing racist memes.
Donald Trump White House posts racist Obama meme
More and more people are seeing at least screencaps from the video in question. As such, the White House was going to have to respond to the attention. Karoline Leavitt actually tried to defend racism in one of the wildest ways imaginable. During today’s White House press availability, she argued that the video in question was based on The Lion King. (This is why Disney handing over so much of its IP to AI companies is a bad idea..) Still, folks on social media were quick to point out that Rafiki is basically the only primate to appear during The Lion King? There sure aren’t any gorillas that I remember.
Leavitt said, “This is from an Internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
An interesting choice of words when the current administration has made memes a central part of its promotional strategy. From deepfaking illegally detained protestors, to misunderstanding Halo. And, insulting Don Lemon just for sport, it’s been memes all the way down for the Trump administration. Unfortunately, America is so far down the rabbit hole. This alone won’t be enough for any real consequence to be taken. That fact makes Tim Scott’s disappointment all the more ironic as the senator championed Trump on the campaign trail. Get ready, there’s always a new low senator.
(featured image: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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