Donald Trump’s longtime frenemy Piers Morgan is back on his bad side after he slammed the president’s post about the Obamas as “vile” and “racist.”
Morgan, 60, spoke with Trump, 79, by phone on Wednesday and thanked the rapidly aging leader for offering advice on how to avoid falling on the stairs. Things quickly reverted after Trump’s disgusting post.
“I sincerely hope President @realDonaldTrump didn’t realise this 60-second clip he reposted last night didn’t end with the vile racist imagery of the Obamas as apes,” the conservative British commentator wrote on X. “He should delete it immediately.”
Morgan is far from the only right-wing figure calling on Trump to delete an AI-generated video that depicted him as a lion and Barack and Michelle Obama as apes—a clip so abhorrent, the Daily Beast has chosen not to publish it.
“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” said Republican Sen. Tim Scott, of South Carolina, who was on Trump’s VP shortlist in 2024. “The President should remove it.”
Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, of New York, condemned the post as “wrong and offensive” and demanded that Trump not only delete it, but also apologize to the Obamas.
Trump has not addressed the backlash himself, but he took the post down sometime Friday morning. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was quick to dismiss outrage as “fake” and overblown.
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King,” Leavitt said in a statement. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Critics were quick to point out that the Disney film Trump was supposedly making a joke about does not feature apes, as the Obamas were portrayed. The former first couple did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
Other politicians were displayed as animals in the clip.
Joe Biden appears as a baboon; Kamala Harris as a tortoise; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as a zebra; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as a meerkat; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a donkey; New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a hyena; and Hillary Clinton as a warthog.
