US President Donald Trump shared a post about election conspiracy theories that included a racist depiction of former president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as apes in a jungle, sparking outrage across the political spectrum Friday, before deleting it in a rare backtrack.

The White House initially rejected “fake outrage” over the video shared on Trump’s Truth Social account late Thursday night, only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member.

Trump said later Friday that he had only “looked at the beginning [of the post], and that “nobody knew” it included the brief depiction of the Obamas that prompted the furor.

Democrats had slammed Trump as “vile” over the post about the Obamas — the first Black president and first lady in US history — while a senior Republican senator said the video was blatantly racist.

Nearly all of the 62-second clip, which was among dozens of Truth Social posts from Trump overnight, appears to be from a conservative video alleging deliberate tampering with voting machines in battleground states as the 2020 presidential votes were tallied.

At the 60-second mark, however, is a quick, spliced-in scene of two primates, with the Obamas’ smiling faces imposed on them.

It is absolutely positively real. Donald Trump posted this video that depicts the Obamas as apes. It’s 59 seconds into the video.

I just screen grabbed it for the people who are saying it isn’t true.

Was it snuck in there? If so it needs the apology of all time. pic.twitter.com/0ALSFH1Il0

— Jennifer ????????????‍♀️????????‍⬛ ???? (@babybeginner) February 6, 2026

The song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” plays in the background when the Obamas appear.

The video,........

© The Times of Israel