ALBAWABA - Former U.S. President Donald Trump has refused to say sorry for posting a controversial video on his social media site called Truth Social. In it, Obama and his wife Michelle were quickly shown as monkeys. Politicians and civil rights activists spoke out strongly against the post, calling it racist.
When asked to apologize, Trump told reporters on Friday that he had "done nothing wrong" and that he did not agree with the racist content in the video.
The one-minute video, which was posted Thursday night and then taken down, made more false claims about poll fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. It said that Dominion Voting Systems was helping Democrats change the results of the election. In the very last seconds of the video, some changed pictures of Obama and his wife as monkeys quickly showed up.
Even though it was criticized, the video got more than 1,000 likes before it was taken down.
The White House explained
At first, the White House said that the outrage was overblown. Later, they said that the video had been shared "by mistake" by a staff member.
Rep. Karoline Leavitt of the White House said the video clip came from a spoof online video that showed Democrats as characters from The Lion King and Trump as "king of the jungle." She told them to pay attention to "issues that matter to the American people."
Later, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he hadn't watched the whole video; he only watched the beginning and then sent it to staff to be posted.
Condemnation in politics
Both of the main political groups in the U.S. spoke out against the event. The only Black senator in the U.S., Republican Tim Scott, called the video "one of the most racist things ever to come from the White House."
The post was also slammed by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who called it "disgusting behavior" and asked Republicans to speak out against it.
Ben Rhodes, a former assistant to President Obama, said that Trump and his supporters should think about how history will judge the present. He said that the Obama family would be remembered with love, while Trump would be seen as "a stain on America's record."
