United States President Donald Trump has posted a video depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as monkeys, drawing widespread condemnation.
Early Friday morning, Trump shared two posts on his Truth Social platform alleging anomalies in the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Biden served as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017. Trump had previously beaten Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, to win the presidency in 2017, but lost to Biden in his bid for a second term.
The one-minute clip featured cybersecurity expert Phil Waldron pointing to alleged “treachery” uncovered during the polls. According to Waldron, five key states all stopped counting votes simultaneously. These states were alleged to have used election-rigging software in their vote-counting machines. “When reporting and counting resumed, a massive spike occurred that favoured Joe Biden,” Waldron said. Trump posted the video twice on his platform.
Barack and Michelle Obama appeared only at the end of the video as AI-generated monkey figures dancing to the tune of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, a famous song featured in Disney’s The Lion King animated franchise, most notably performed by Timon and Pumbaa, a meerkat and a warthog.
The video has sparked outrage on social media, with most users accusing Trump of racism. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office issued a statement saying, “Disgusting behaviour by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
