A day after Donald Trump triggered a social media firestorm by sharing a racist video of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michele Obama on Truth Social, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed left-leaning media outlets for their continued focus on the now-deleted post.
For the unversed, during a late-night Truth Social spree on Thursday, February 5, 2026, Trump shared a clip highlighting voter fraud conspiracy theories connected to the 2020 presidential election. A two-second footage of Barack and Michelle Obama’s faces superimposed onto the bodies of monkeys shockingly appeared towards the end of the clip, sparking major outrage.
Trump later claimed that the video was posted by a White House staffer, and he did not look at the entire footage before it made its way to social media. “I just looked at the first part. I didn’t see the whole thing,” the President told reporters on Air Force One during his weekend trip to Mar-a-Lago.
Meanwhile, Karoline Leavitt spoke about the video during an appearance on The Ingraham Angle. “It was a meme that was posted by a staffer on the president’s Truth Social account. It was from a Lion King video depicting, as you pointed out, different Democrats as different animals,” Leavitt said.
Ingraham: It’s not just Democrats. There are Republicans saying the President should come out and apologize for it. Why won’t he?
Leavitt: I won’t get ahead of the President. This is a distraction from the fake news media. pic.twitter.com/1PH78reUyZ
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 7, 2026
“I think Kamala Harris was depicted as a turtle in this video meme. The president did take it down. He spoke with lawmakers today out of respect for them, including Senator Tim Scott,” she added.
The White House Press Secretary also claimed that the focus on the video distracted Americans from acknowledging the recent developments made under the Trump administration.
“The post was removed. But leave it to the leftist media, of course, to talk about this all day rather than talk about the fact that the Dow has broken over 50,000 points for the first time in our nation’s history,” Leavitt said.
Karoline Leavitt on Trump’s Truth Social post depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys:
“This is from an internet meme video… Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.” pic.twitter.com/WkxtY3OsZW
— FactPost (@factpostnews) February 6, 2026
“Rather than talk about what President Trump did last night, launching TrumpRX.gov, which is the first of its kind, amazing, beautiful website for direct-to-consumer drug purchases,” she continued, urging Americans to check out the TrumpRX website, launched to allow the public to purchase prescription medicine at lower prices.
“For the American people to go to TrumpRX.gov right now and to purchase prescription drugs that are at a much lower cost, sometimes more than 600% less, because of the successful deals that this president negotiated with pharmaceutical companies. It’s great news,” she said.
Leavitt also attempted to defend Trump right after the video was shared, calling the backlash “fake outrage.”
“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 initially wrote. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt added.
