Michelle Obama

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Key Figures

President Trump posted a video on Truth Social late on February 5, 2026, containing AI-generated imagery depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as primates — invoking the longstanding racist trope of comparing Black people to animals. The post remained online for nearly 12 hours before the White House deleted it amid bipartisan backlash. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt initially defended it as an internet meme; Trump said on February 6 that he did not make a mistake and declined to apologize.

President Trump's social media account shares a video on February 6, 2025 — during Black History Month — that shows Barack Obama and Michelle Obama with their heads digitally superimposed on the bodies of apes in a jungle scene while "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" plays. Trump's White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially defends the video, calling it a "King of the Jungle" meme depicting Trump as a lion and Democrats as Lion King characters. The video is taken down after bipartisan backlash. Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One that he "just looked at the first part" of the video and didn't see the ape imagery. He refuses to apologize. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), the only Black Republican in the Senate, writes: "Praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House." GOP Senators Pete Ricketts, Roger Wicker, and Representative Mike Lawler also condemn the post. No staffer is disciplined. The incident continues the decadeslong pattern of Republican officials circulating racist imagery depicting Black political figures as primates.

The Democratic National Convention opens in Chicago, Illinois with Kamala Harris accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, becoming the first Black and South Asian woman nominated by a major U.S. party for president. President Biden delivers an emotional farewell address on the first night of the convention, receiving a standing ovation and multiple chants of "We love Joe!" Biden says, "There's no place I'd rather be than here with you. I may be passing the torch, but I have not left the arena." The convention showcases a unified Democratic Party behind Harris and running mate Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota.

West York, Pennsylvania Mayor Charles Wasko, a Republican, faces calls to resign on September 29, 2016 after community members discover racist Facebook posts on his page depicting President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as primates. One image shows a wagon of orangutans captioned "Aww... moving day at the Whitehouse has finally arrived" with the tagline "Kenya or bust." A comment on another post refers to Michelle Obama as "Moochelles baby photo." The posts reflect a pattern of racial dehumanization of the Obamas that appears across local Republican social media during the Obama presidency — in addition to Davenport's 2011 email, similar posts circulate from Republican officials in West Virginia, Wyoming, and elsewhere. The pattern demonstrates that racist depictions of the first Black president are not isolated incidents but a recurring feature of Republican Party communication networks at the local level.