"Thursday night, Donald Trump posted something racist enough to break through on social media-a rarity, as his offensive social media posts often go ignored these days. But the visceral, undeniable racism of this particular iteration, and the White House's initial refusal to express any remorse, pushed it through. And at least one Republican senator expressed disapproval: Sen. Tim Scott, who is Black, called it "the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House.""
"The screengrab is real, and the underlying video it comes from is stranger than one might expect. Trump posted the video on Truth Social at 8:44 p.m. on Thursday, and it's actually largely about election fraud, taking you through baseless and frankly dull conspiracy theory material. But at the end, for about two seconds, it flashes to a bright jungle scene, featuring the laughing Obamas, to the tune of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight.""
"The last two seconds appeared to be clipped into the video for shock humor, meant to throw a laugh in for the racists who had made it all the way through. There is no mitigating "context" here. With or without the election-fraud part, it was the Black president and first lady, depicted as apes, in one of the oldest and most dehumanizing racist tropes in history."
On Thursday night, Donald Trump posted a video on Truth Social that included a screengrab showing the heads of Michelle and Barack Obama on ape bodies. The underlying video largely focused on baseless election-fraud conspiracy theories and ran until a two-second clip flashed a bright jungle scene with the laughing Obamas set to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." The image used an explicitly dehumanizing racist trope. The White House initially refused to express remorse and described the clip as an internet meme portraying Trump as "king of the Jungle." Republican Sen. Tim Scott condemned the post as highly racist.
Read at Slate Magazine
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