MAGA Republican Tim Scott has broken ranks with President Donald Trump over his vile video of the Obamas, demanding that the president remove the post and describing it as “the most racist thing” he’s seen from the White House.
Trump shared the clip pushing conspiracy theories about “rigged” elections, in which the faces of former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were superimposed onto the bodies of apes.
The image sparked a bizarre attempt by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to justify the actions of her boss, claiming it was merely “an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.”
Scott, the junior senator from South Carolina, expressed his disgust on social media on Friday, making him the first prominent Trump ally to publicly condemn the president’s actions—although, notably, not directly pointing out that it was Trump who posted it.
“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it,” Scott said, alongside a clip of the post.
“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt said.
But the intervention marked a notable departure for Scott, who has long been one of Trump’s most loyal allies in the Senate and one of the former president’s most prominent Black defenders within the Republican Party.
Even when Scott expressed discomfort with Trump’s language following events like the 2017 Charlottesville rally, he stopped short of breaking with the former president.
Scott, who has represented South Carolina in the Senate since 2013, has often been deployed by Republicans as a counterweight to accusations of racism within the party.
He has spoken openly about experiencing racial profiling as a Black man in America, while simultaneously urging Republicans to reject what he calls the politics of grievance.
‘Our family went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime,” he said in 2024 as he campaigned for the GOP’s presidential nomination against Trump and other Republicans, including South Carolinian Nikki Haley.
But Trump’s post caused a significant backlash on Friday morning, as it referenced some of the oldest and most overt racist tropes in American politics.
Comparisons of Black people to apes or monkeys have long been used by white supremacists and extremist groups, making the imagery especially incendiary given the president’s history of racially charged rhetoric.
Civil rights advocates, Democratic lawmakers, and anti-hate organizations condemned the meme within hours, MAGA Republicans were largely silent.
California Governor Newsom, a 2028 presidential contender and Trump’s resident troller-in-chief, lashed out at the meme - and inability of MAGA world to call it out.
“Disgusting behavior by the President,” the Democratic Governor’s office said on X. “Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
