MAGA’s top critic is not sparing any ire for a racist video posted by the president.
California Governor Gavin Newsom called out Republicans on Friday for their deafening silence after President Donald Trump shared a racist meme depicting the Obamas as apes in a Truth Social post.
In a frenzied posting spree overnight, Trump shared a vile clip in which the faces of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were superimposed onto the bodies of chimps.
Opens in new windowAs the images appear, the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” plays for a brief second in the background.
The image immediately sparked widespread anger across social media. Newsom, a 2028 presidential contender and Trump’s resident troller-in-chief, lashed out at Trump’s post.
“Disgusting behavior by the President,” the Democratic Governor’s office said on X. “Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
There’s been little repudiation of Trump’s actions in MAGA world. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made a bizarre attempt to justify her boss’s actions on Friday morning.
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” she said in a statement.
“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Trump’s post 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.
During his political career, Trump has singled out Black athletes who knelt during the national anthem to protest systemic racism; pushed “birther” conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama; and last year shared digitally altered images and videos of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a fake mustache and a sombrero—imagery Jeffries publicly described as racist.
Nonetheless, Trump insisted in 2020, “I’ve done more for Black Americans than anybody with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln.”
“Nobody has even been close,” he said.
Civil rights advocates, Democratic lawmakers, and anti-hate organizations condemned the meme within hours, but as Newsom noted, MAGA Republicans were silent.
The response among Trump allies ranged from deflection to dismissal. Some, like Leavitt, claimed critics were manufacturing outrage, while others avoided mentioning the image at all.
Meanwhile, Republicans Against Trump put up a 2015 flashback video of Trump ally Lindsey Graham, in which the South Carolina Senator described the then Republican presidential candidate as a “race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot.”
“He doesn’t represent my party, he doesn’t represent the values that our men and women in uniform are fighting for,” Graham said at the time.
Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, an ardent Trump critic, agreed with the sentiment.
“Good god,” he wrote on X. “Trump is a demon.”
