The president of the United States published a racist video Thursday night that shows Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. On Friday, the White House dismissed the criticism, but the president deleted the post. Was this episode disappointing? Yes. Surprising? Not anymore.
Last spring, after the death of Pope Francis, Donald Trump posted an AI image of himself as Pope just days before the cardinals met to elect a successor.
So no, it is not surprising that the president decided to publish Virulent images against black people. during Black History Month.
But it's disappointing here in 2026 that an occupant of the Oval Office still thinks this way.
In 1971, the president of the United States laughed when the governor of California He referred to African delegates at the United Nations as monkeys.. Less than ten years later, that governor became president of the United States. And here we are, half a century later, and yet another president has amplified that racist trope.
Which means white supremacy is still on the ballot.
That Nixon-Reagan-Trump common thread does not revolve closely around policies or principles, but simply that shared worldview. After all, Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency and Reagan offered amnesty to immigrants, very different measures from Trump's. No, their commonalities are best revealed in the delight each man felt at an ancient racist attack on blacks.
For Americans age 50 and older (about a third of the nation), this worldview has been the responsible architect of White House policy for most of our lives. And yet, when Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election, the forensic investigation focused on grocery prices and his absence from Joe Rogan's podcast. Some, in trying to explain why Harris lost, mischaracterized her role on the border or inflated her influence in the war in Gaza.
For some reason, the breed didn't seem to receive the same level of scrutiny.
This factor was dismissed despite decades of data, such as the wave of white nationalists who supported Harris' opponent and the Birther movement that questioned President Obama's citizenship. The trio of presidents who are known to enjoy depictions of black people as monkeys (Nixon, Reagan, and Trump) used racist dog whistles in their ten presidential campaigns combined. Their administrations have tended to be more anti-civil rights movement mail-civil rights movement.
Our nation's attempts to understand ourselves are continually undermined by the denial that, for some single-issue voters, race is their only issue. Neither the price of bacon nor his religious convictions. Not Gaza. Just the promise of having a safe space for prejudice. And when the president of the United States makes racist jokes as Nixon did in the 1970s or shares racist videos as Trump continues to do, there is certainly a sense among the electorate that that prejudice has a home in the White House.
Before Trump used social media to promote the ugliness of yesteryear, Harris relaunched her 2024 social media campaign account earlier this week. calling him a place where Generation Z can “gather and revisit some of our great, courageous leaders, whether they be elected leaders, community leaders, civic leaders, faith leaders, or youth leaders.” She urged: “Stay committed. See you there.”
It's unclear if she plans to run again in 2028. What we do know is that she wouldn't have posted an AI photo of herself as the new Pope while Catholics were mourning Francis (or at any other time). We know she would not have advocated for immigration officials to racially profile black and brown Americans or ignore the 14th Amendment to detain children. We do not know how many of his policy proposals he could have passed in Congress, but we do know his record of public service to the American people, in contrast to the current president, who is sue the American people for 10 billion dollars.
There's nothing wrong with revisiting Harris' mistakes on the campaign trail or debating her electability as she reemerges in the public spotlight. But now that Trump has resorted to posting monkey jokes about black people, perhaps updated forensics will consider our well-established history of racism among the factors in the 2024 election.
It is not surprising that a president of the United States thinks badly of black people. Not when it is known that more than 25% of those who have held office were themselves enslavers. But it is disappointing that, 250 years into our nation's history, some of us still deny the role racism plays in shaping our politics and, therefore, all of our lives.
YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow
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Trump's release of racist images depicting the Obamas as apes during Black History Month represents a troubling continuation of a historical pattern, with Nixon and Reagan similarly engaging with racist depictions of black people.[1][3]. The incident reveals that white supremacy remains entrenched in American politics across multiple presidential administrations, united not by policy consistency but by a shared worldview that revels in racist attacks on African Americans.[1].
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Race has been an under-examined factor in recent election results, and analysis of the 2024 presidential election disproportionately focused on issues such as inflation and media appearances, while overlooking documented evidence of racist mobilization, including white nationalist endorsements and baseless conspiracy theories directed at the previous administration.[1]. This omission is particularly significant given decades of data demonstrating the influence of racism on voting patterns.[1].
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For some voters, racism functions as a single-issue priority: not economic concerns or religious convictions, but rather the security of having a politically sanctioned space for racial prejudice.[1]. When a sitting president harbors or amplifies racist content, it signals to this electorate that their prejudices have legitimacy within the highest office.[1].
Different points of view on the subject.
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The White House initially characterized the incident as misrepresented outrage, framing the video as an Internet meme that depicted political figures as characters from “The Lion King” rather than focusing on the racist imagery, and urged critics to “report today on something that really matters to the American public.”[1][2]. This framing suggested that the controversy represented a distraction from substantive governance concerns.[3].
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The White House later attributed the post to a staff member's erroneous action rather than deliberate presidential conduct, creating distance between the president's stated intentions and the offensive content.[3]. This explanation positioned the incident as an aberration in personnel management rather than a reflection of administrative values.[3].
