President Trump shared a controversial video yesterday through his Truth Social account, which briefly showed the Obamas as apes, which is a comparison long linked to racist dehumanization.
The clip was part of a bigger video promoting false claims about the 2020 election being stolen, but the sudden switch to the imagery of the Obamas triggered widespread condemnation across the board.
The timing during Black History Month intensified the backlash, with critics across the political spectrum calling this imagery offensive and totally unacceptable.
At the start, the White House defended this post with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt describing the entire reaction as fake outrage.
She claimed it to be a part of an internet meme showing Trump as the King of the Jungle.
After criticism appeared to grow, the administration deleted this video about 12 hours later and said it had shared it by mistake and was done by a staffer who had access to the president's account.