WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama broke his silence on the since-deleted, disturbing meme video clip posted on President Trump’s Truth Social depicting him and the former first lady as apes.
The 44th president let out a laugh of disgust and broadly ripped into his successor for “deeply troubling” behavior while panning Trump for bringing a lack of decorum to the White House.
“I recognize that a majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling,” Obama told lefty podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen in an interview that dropped Saturday.
“It is true that it gets attention. It’s true that it’s a distraction,” he added. “But as I’m traveling around the country … [and] meet people, they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness, and there’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television.”
Trump’s Feb. 5 Truth Social post came in the form of a video that relitigated heavily disputed accusations that the 2020 election was stolen. The end of the video included a clip showing the Obamas as apes.
It appeared that the 2020 election video had been a screen recording and that the ape portion came up as the next video in the queue and was not part of the initial clip.
The segment portraying the Obamas as apes came from a broader meme video showing Trump as the King of the Jungle and depicting prominent pols as characters from “The Lion King.” Only a snippet of that meme video was shown in Trump’s post.
White House officials have claimed that a staffer “erroneously” posted that video to his Truth Social account. Trump later told reporters he “didn’t see” the ape portion at the end of the video and that “of course” he condemns the racist parts of that clip.
Trump has not apologized to Obama for the video, which triggered a wave of backlash from Republicans in Congress.
“Well, I have no message. I didn’t know about it, so I mean, it went up. I really have no message,” Trump told a reporter when asked about his message to those who were offended by the post.
The 44th president didn’t dwell on the ape video in his discussion with Tyler Cohen and argued that Democrats’ playbook against the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota should be a model for their resistance to Trump.
“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,” Obama added.
Obama had been quiet about the video during the firestorm. Generally speaking, he has been selective in when he weighs in on the controversies under Trump’s second term.
For example, he has spoken out about the crackdown in Minnesota that is now winding down and the Trump administration’s recent repeal of the EPA’s finding that climate change is an “endangerment,” which has been used to justify scores of regulatory policies against greenhouse gas emissions.
