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Republicans Condemn 'Incredibly Offensive' Trump Post About The Obamas

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WASHINGTON ― Republican lawmakers on Friday denounced President Donald Trump’s video post that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as what appeared to be a cartoon chimpanzee and gorilla.

“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the sole Black Republican in the Senate and the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, wrote online.

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He added: “The President should remove it.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) also condemned the post and urged Trump to apologize to the former president and former first lady.

“The President’s post is wrong and incredibly offensive — whether intentional or a mistake — and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered,” the moderate congressman wrote in a post online.

The clip shared by Trump, which parrots his debunked 2020 election conspiracy theories, showed the Obamas’ faces and the faces of other prominent Democrats superimposed on the bodies of various animals. It was set to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Trump, meanwhile, is portrayed in the video as a lion.

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially defended the post in a statement to HuffPost on Friday.

“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from ‘The Lion King,’” she said. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

But Trump deleted the post after outcry from more Republicans on Capitol Hill.

“Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this,” Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) wrote online. “The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize.”

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Trump had previously promoted the racist birther conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the U.S. It’s just one of many racist attacks he has launched against opponents during his time in public office and before becoming president.

The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a potential 2028 presidential candidate, slammed the video as “disgusting behavior by the President” and called on “every single Republican” to denounce it.