There’s something deeply unsettling about the excuse “I didn’t see it.” When you’re the President of the United States, sharing content to millions of followers, that defense falls somewhere between negligent and deliberately obtuse. Yet here we are again, watching Donald Trump claim ignorance about a video he posted that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
The 62-second video started with claims about voter fraud (already debunked, by the way) and ended with racist imagery set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” It’s the kind of thing that makes you wonder about the entire approval process for presidential social media posts, or if there even is one.
The “I Didn’t Make a Mistake” Defense
Trump’s response when asked if he’d apologize? “I didn’t make a mistake.” He told reporters aboard Air Force One that he only watched the beginning before handing it off to staff, who apparently also didn’t bother watching the whole thing before hitting post. It’s a chain of supposed incompetence that strains credibility.
“I look at a lot of thousands of things,” Trump said, as if volume somehow excuses the lack of basic vetting. The video was one of dozens posted to his Truth Social account overnight, which raises its own set of questions about who has access to the president’s accounts and what safeguards exist.
The White House initially doubled down, calling it “an internet meme video” and telling critics to “stop the fake outrage.” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s statement was particularly tone-deaf, suggesting people should focus on things that “actually matter to the American public.” Because apparently, the president sharing racist content doesn’t qualify.
When Your Own Party Turns on You
What makes this incident different is the swift condemnation from Republicans themselves. Senator Tim Scott, a Trump ally, didn’t mince words: “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” Coming from a Black Republican senator who’s generally supportive of Trump, that’s not a small statement.
New York Representative Mike Lawler called it “wrong and incredibly offensive” regardless of intent. Utah Senator John Curtis labeled it “blatantly racist and inexcusable.” These aren’t Democratic critics seizing an opportunity. These are members of Trump’s own party drawing a line in the sand.
Florida representative Byron Donalds, a longtime Trump supporter running for governor, reportedly called the White House directly and was told a staffer “let the president down.” It’s interesting how quickly the blame shifts to unnamed staff members when things go sideways.
The Pattern Nobody Wants to Acknowledge
This isn’t happening in a vacuum. Trump has a documented history with Obama that goes back years. Remember the birther conspiracy? Trump spent considerable time falsely claiming Obama was born in Kenya and therefore ineligible for the presidency. He eventually acknowledged Obama was born in Hawaii, but the damage was done and the pattern established.
The video itself reportedly came from a conservative meme creator and also depicted other Democrats as animals, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Hillary Clinton. Even Joe Biden appeared as an ape eating a banana. But the historical context of comparing Black people to monkeys carries a particularly vicious weight that can’t be dismissed as equal-opportunity mockery.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who Trump previously targeted with an AI image depicting him with a mustache and sombrero, called Trump a “vile, unhinged and malignant bottom feeder.” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker was more direct: “Donald Trump is a racist.”
The NAACP president Derrick Johnson called the video “disgusting and utterly despicable,” while Ben Rhodes, a former Obama administration official, suggested future Americans will embrace the Obamas while studying Trump as “a stain on our country.”
The Social Media Politics Problem
This incident highlights a broader issue about social media and political accountability. When a president can post dozens of things overnight without proper vetting, when staff members apparently have carte blanche to share content under the presidential account, when the first instinct is to defend rather than apologize, we have a systemic problem.
The video stayed up for hours before being removed. The White House’s explanation that it was “erroneously” posted doesn’t answer the fundamental question: how does something like this happen in the first place? What’s the approval process? Who’s responsible?
The excuse that Trump only saw the beginning of the video before passing it along suggests a carelessness that’s perhaps even more troubling than intentional malice. If the President of the United States can’t be bothered to watch a minute-long video before sharing it with the world, what else is being handled with similar indifference?
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office demanded every Republican denounce the behavior immediately. That’s where we are now: basic human decency requiring political declarations because the baseline has dropped so low.
The question isn’t really whether Trump saw the whole video or just part of it. The question is why a video like that was anywhere near the president’s social media queue in the first place, and what it says about the news cycle we’re trapped in when “I didn’t watch it all” somehow passes as an acceptable presidential response to sharing racist content.
