White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the outrage over President Donald Trump’s ‘racist’ video of showing the Obamas as apes is fake as it is from an internet meme video. Leavitt said the meme video depicted 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,” Leavitt said in a statement to Newsweek.The AI-generated video was posted on X in October 2025 and showed many Democrats as animals bowing down to Trump. In the full video, Joe Biden appears as a baboon; Kamala Harris as a tortoise; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as a zebra; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as a meerkat; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a donkey; New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani as a hyena; and Hillary Clinton as a warthog. Content creator Xerias took credit for the main video as it drew backlash after Trump shared it. “Disgusting behavior by the President,” California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom said in a post on X, reacting to the video. “Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Republican senator Tim Scott wrote on X on Friday morning. “The President should remove it.”
