To humiliate and demean are two verbs Donald Trump favors. Just before midnight on Thursday, February 5, the US president’s Truth Social account shared footage depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as laughing monkeys – imagery with an unmistakably racist connotation. The clip came from a video that had been circulating on social media several months earlier, portraying major figures in American politics, mostly Democrats, as jungle animals. In the end, all bow to the lion king: Trump, of course.

By early morning, US media outlets had erupted. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt initially responded with a familiar approach: attack. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” she said. But over the following hours, many Republican lawmakers publicly condemned the footage on X.

Representative Mike Turner of Ohio described it as “offensive, heart breaking, and unacceptable,” while calling on Trump to apologize. “Blatantly racist and inexcusable,” agreed Senator John Curtis of Utah. The most notable reaction came from Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican senator and a Trump ally. “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”

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