President Donald Trump said he did not see the end of the controversial video posted on his Truth Social account that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys, insisting he would not have shared it if he had known how it ended.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday night en route to Florida, Trump said he had already spoken with Sen. Tim Scott, the Senate’s only black Republican, after Scott demanded the video be taken down.
“I talked to Tim Scott. He was great. Tim is a great guy. He got it 100%,” Trump said.
“I didn’t see the whole thing,” Trump added. “I think there was an image at the end that people don’t like. I wouldn’t like it either.”
‘I liked the beginning’
Trump said he only watched the first part of the roughly minute-long video, which was styled as a “Lion King” meme and initially focused on claims of voter fraud.
“I liked the beginning,” Trump said. “I didn’t see it. I was watching the first episode.”
He said the opening part was about “voter fraud in some place, Georgia” and that he passed it on without seeing the rest.
White House blames staff
The White House said the video was released in error and blamed an unidentified staffer for not fully vetting it.
“Generally, they’re looking at the whole thing, but I don’t think anybody is,” Trump said. “We took it down as soon as we found out.
The video was deleted from Trump’s Truth Social account hours later after a growing backlash.
No apology was offered
Asked if he would apologize, Trump declined.
“No, I didn’t make a mistake,” he said. “I mean, I’m looking at a lot—thousands of things. I was looking at the beginning, it was fine.”
Mixed reactions from the White House
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially defended the post, saying it came from “an Internet meme video depicting President Trump as king of the jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.”
“Please stop the fake outrage,” Leavitt added.
However, as criticism mounted — including from several senior Republicans — the White House later sought to distance the president from the video, emphasizing that it was removed once the problem was identified.