'Most racist thing I've seen out of this White House': Tim Scott slams Trump for post depicting Obamas as monkeys

[douglas9]

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) fiercely condemned a social media post shared by President Donald Trump late Thursday depicting former President and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys.

“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” he wrote on X on Friday morning. “The President should remove it.”

The post, a minutelong video rife with conspiracy theories about voting machines in the 2020 election, cuts to a short clip of the Obamas in monkey form, dancing to the tune of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” a 1961 song featured in the Disney hit, “The Lion King.”

Depicting Black people as monkeys or apes is a centuries-old racist trope.

The post drew widespread backlash from Democrats. But the criticism from Scott — a longtime ally of Trump, once viewed as a potential vice presidential candidate, and the only Black Republican in the Senate — is particularly notable.

In a statement issued before Scott’s criticism, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the backlash and said the clip came from a longer video that showed Trump as the Lion King and depicted top Democrats as jungle characters. Among others, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) — all longtime rivals of the president — are shown as an elephant, boar, meerkat and giraffe, respectively.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/06/donald-trump-obamas-monkey-video-00768745

[UpInArms]

1. How can Tim Scott remain in the guardians of pedophiles party?

It is an mystery to me

[NoRethugFriends]

2. He has a cabin

[Norrrm]

3. Blacks for Trump turned out to be no-hires.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. This 👆

Hope Tim Scott learns from this

[mercuryblues]

13. Are you kidding?

Tomorrow he will be defending trump.

[3catwoman3]

4. Will he do anything about it?

Let's guess - no.

[leftstreet]

5. So a little bit racist was okay?

Just not this most-racist !!

What a weird statement

[PittBlue]

6. I was thinking the same thing.

[leftstreet]

14. He called Somalians "human garbage"

and said they had "low IQs"

But I guess for this elected freak that wasn't too racist

[Coldwater]

7. The most racist thing so far

[Omnipresent]

9. Trump will at some point use the N word.

He will say it at a podium, aboard Air Force one, and it could be anywhere, but in his mental decline, it will eventually slip out.
Will i be shocked or surprised? No.

[underpants]

8. Best response I've seen.

Link to tweet

?s=46&t=3VBm1LJ8j8qLp6JTs_8J2A

[canetoad]

10. Poor, poor Donald

He still has his knickers in a twist over the 2011 WHC dinner. So much impotent rage.

[kacekwl]

12. Well, that makes it all better.

I'm willing to bet 90% of magats have a similar picture hanging in their garage with their Confederate flag.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

15. MaddowBlog-White House tries to defend Trump amplifying a racist video targeting the Obamas

After Karoline Leavitt tried to defend the latest example of the president’s routine racism, the White House stepped on her dreadful argument.

Trump amplifying another racist video got me thinking about the commitment he made to Black voters in his second inaugural — and how quickly he returned to the kind of gutter racism that helped fuel his political rise in the first place. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-02-06T16:01:29.577Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/white-house-tries-to-defend-trump-amplifying-a-racist-video-targeting-the-obamas

In the fall, for example, the Republican used the term “DEI” as a slur for minorities in blaming their involvement with the construction of Barack Obama’s presidential library. Soon after, the president, as part of an ugly anti-immigrant pitch, publicly referred to Somali Americans as “garbage” and revived his “s—hole countries” rhetoric.

The list, alas, continues to grow longer. The Associated Press reported:

President Donald Trump used his social media account to share a video about election conspiracy theories that includes a racist depiction of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle. […]

Nearly all of the 62-second clip, which was among dozens of Truth Social posts from Trump overnight, appears to be from a conservative video alleging deliberate tampering with voting machines in battleground states as the 2020 presidential votes were tallied. At the 60-second mark is a quick scene of two primates, with the Obamas’ smiling faces imposed on them.

The fact that the Republican president didn’t make the video himself is hardly exculpatory: Trump saw the video and thought it’d be a good to idea to amplify it, just as he did in his first term when he promoted a video of a supporter wearing Trump campaign gear while shouting “white power!”...

Republican Sen. Tim Scott, who is Black, wrote online that he was praying the video “was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” The South Carolinian, who’s currently chairing the National Republican Senatorial Committee, added: “The President should remove it.”....

Complicating matters, a few hours after Leavitt tried to defend the racist video, the White House changed its story, saying in a statement, “A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down.”

Evidently, the press secretary’s “fake outrage” line proved unsustainable.

In his second inaugural address, Trump said: “To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote. We set records, and I will not forget it. I’ve heard your voices in the campaign, and I look forward to working with you in the years to come.”

Like too many of Trump’s promises, he wasted little time in trashing this commitment and returning to the kind of gutter racism that helped fuel his political rise in the first place.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

16. Trump privately lashes out at GOP lawmakers over racist video blowback, sources say

trump is upset that there are people out there who are NOT racists like him. trump's feelings were hurt because his fellow republicans called him a racist

From CNN: Trump privately lashes out at GOP lawmakers over racist video blowback, sources say

www.cnn.com/2026/02/13/p...

— Irene💙🎼🐈🦋🌻 (@mycatsmom99.bsky.social) 2026-02-14T00:22:54.559Z

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/13/politics/trump-racist-video-gop-blowback

Hours after refusing to apologize for a racist video posted to his Truth Social account, President Donald Trump hadn’t let go.

He spent last weekend complaining to allies about Republicans who had condemned the video depicting the Obamas as apes, questioning the lawmakers’ loyalty and vowing consequences, sources familiar with his comments told CNN.

The president railed against South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott — the sole Black Republican senator and chair of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm — throughout the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, arguing one of his top congressional allies was out of line to call his White House racist, the sources said.

“The president felt he could’ve handled that matter privately,” a senior Trump administration official told CNN of Scott. “He was like, ‘We work together all the time. He didn’t need to comment publicly.’”

Trump had even stronger words for Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, one of the sources recalled, using expletives to denounce her and declaring that she was dead to him.

Britt’s office slammed that account as “fake news” and touted her strong working relationship with the president, while the White House praised her as “an incredible ally” whom the president has “great respect” for. Scott’s office declined to comment.