Former U.S. President Barack Obama has indirectly rebuked a racist video shared on social media by Donald Trump, saying that the sense of “shame” and “decorum” once expected of public officials has eroded.
The video, posted to Trump’s Truth Social account, included a clip depicting Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes, set to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight. It appeared at the end of a longer video repeating unproven claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election. The post triggered bipartisan criticism before being deleted, with the White House initially dismissing backlash as “fake outrage” and later attributing the clip to a staff member.
Speaking on a podcast hosted by Brian Tyler Cohen, Obama addressed what he described as a decline in political discourse. Without naming Trump directly, he said the country is witnessing “a level of cruelty that we haven’t seen before” and added that public life no longer reflects the standards of propriety and respect once associated with high office.
“It’s important to recognise that the majority of the American people find this behaviour deeply troubling,” Obama said, calling it a distraction but noting that many Americans still value “decency, courtesy, kindness.”
Republican Senator Tim Scott described the video as “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” Trump later told reporters he “didn’t see” the offensive portion of the clip and said he had not made a mistake.
The episode formed part of a broader conversation in which Obama discussed civic engagement, immigration protests, redistricting, and his presidential library, set to open in Chicago next year.
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