Donald Trump launched his political career by pushing the racist Barack Obama birther conspiracy theory, and even without getting into his policies or mainstreaming of white supremacists and their ideology, you can find plenty of examples of Trump lobbing obviously racist attacks at his many foes.

Still, the White House could have plausibly claimed that Trump didn’t mean to post a stunningly racist video — which briefly shows Barack and Michelle Obama with their heads superimposed on monkeys — to Truth Social last night. Instead, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the video and slammed the “fake outrage.” Hours later, the post was deleted and the post was blamed on a White House staffer:

News: The White House has now taken down the post.

A senior WH official tells me: "A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down"

It was up for 12 hours https://t.co/uvcqqmHKSk

Trump went on a manic Truth Social spree last night. The president (or the White House staffer authorized to frantically post bizarre content to his feed in the wee........

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