Obama responds to Trump’s video of him and Michelle as apes and says MAGA lacks a way of ‘shame’ | EUROtoday

Former President Barack Obama has responded to a video shared on President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account depicting him and former first woman Michelle Obama as apes.

Last week, Trump’s Truth Social account shared a video that confirmed the Obamas’ faces superimposed onto apes because the tune “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” performed within the background. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt initially claimed the put up was “from an internet meme video” and stated to “stop the fake outage.”

But as criticism mounted, the put up was deleted. A White House official advised The Independent a staffer “erroneously made the post.”

Political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen, who revealed a 47-minute interview with Obama on Saturday, requested the previous president in regards to the video and different situations of “cruelty” in public discourse from Trump and his allies.

Obama replied: “First of all, I think it’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling.”

“It is true that it gets attention. It’s true that it’s a distraction. But, as I’m traveling around the country, as you’re traveling around the country, you meet people — they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness,” he stated.

“And there’s this sort of clown show happening in social media and on television, and what is true is that there doesn’t seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office. So that’s been lost,” he added.

“But the reason I point out that I don’t think the majority of the American people approve of this is because, ultimately, the answer is going to come from the American people.”

The Independent has contacted the White House for remark.

Trump refused to apologize when requested in regards to the video on Friday, February 6, telling reporters he “didn’t make a mistake.” When requested Thursday if he “fired or disciplined” the staffer who erroneously posted the video, Trump replied: “No, I haven’t.”

The video obtained widespread backlash, together with from a number of Republican lawmakers.

Senator Tim Scott, the one Black Republican within the chamber, referred to as on Trump to take away the video after it was first posted. “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it,” Scott wrote on X.

Republican Senator Katie Britt additionally denounced the video, writing on X: “This content was rightfully removed, should have never been posted to begin with, and is not who we are as a nation.”

Trump was later stated to be livid with each of them for having criticized the put up.

Obama – the Democratic president from 2009 to 2017 – has lengthy been a favourite goal of Trump, who was a pacesetter of the so-called “birther conspiracy” which falsely claimed that Obama was born in Kenya and was subsequently ineligible to function U.S. president.