Kathryn WilkensFeb 6th, 2026, 7:55 pm
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
During a Friday gaggle with the press aboard Air Force One en route to Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump refused to apologize for a racist AI-generated video depicting the Obamas as apes that was posted to his Truth Social account on Thursday, telling a reporter he would not say sorry because he “didn’t make a mistake.”
“The White House says a staffer sent that video. Are you going to fire the staffer?” an unnamed reporter can be heard asking. “No. I looked at it. I didn’t see the whole thing. I gave it to the people. They posted it,” responded Trump.
The reporter then followed up, saying, “Are you going to apologize?”
“No, I didn’t make a mistake,” insisted the president.
The video was posted by Trump’s account on Thursday evening, containing baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, complete with a short clip at the end of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama’s faces superimposed on the bodies of apes.
Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, along with members of the media, fervently condemned the video as racist.
On Friday morning, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shrugged off the video, chalking it up to an “Internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle,” dismissing critics as “fake outrage.”
However, just a few hours later, the post was deleted from Trump’s account, and an unnamed White House staffer was blamed for making an “erroneous” post.
“What I saw in the beginning [of the video] was really, really strong,” Trump continued during the Friday press gaggle. “It was about fraudulent elections. Anytime I see that stuff, and when it’s credible, you put it up. But somebody slipped and missed a very small part… That was a very strong truth.”
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