A video including a clip showing Michelle and Barack Obama portrayed as apes has disappeared from the Truth Social account of Donald Trump after fury over the seemingly AI-created footage erupted. The 62-second video, which has sparked fierce bipartisan backlash in the US and widespread criticism outside of the country, was set to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Containing claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, the clip appears to bear the signature of conservative meme creator Xerias. That video portrays several prominent Democrats as animals, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former President Joe Biden, who is shown as an ape eating a banana.

Republican Senator Tim Scott, who is Black, condemned the post and urged the president to remove it, calling it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”

The White House defended the post, describing it as an “internet meme video” and telling critics to “stop the fake outrage.” The president himself did not comment on the video.

“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement shared earlier today, February 6.

She added: “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

Barack and Michelle Obama have not publicly commented.

The video being shared on the US President’s official account on Truth Social triggered a wave of backlash.

“Disgusting behaviour by the president,” the office of California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on X. “Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”

Derrick Johnson, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), condemned the video as “disgusting and utterly despicable,” accusing Trump of using it to divert attention from a “rapidly failing economy”.

“You know who isn’t in the Epstein files? Barack Obama. You know who actually improved the economy as president? Barack Obama,” he added.

Millions of documents part of the so-called Epstein files were released last Friday by the Department of Justice. Several high-profile personalities were named in these documents, which included photographs, emails and news cuttings among other files.

Being named in the Epstine files doesn’t imply any wrondoing.