President Donald Trump admitted he approved the Truth Social post containing a racist video, but insists he didn’t see the imagery depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes—and flatly refuses to apologize.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Mar-a-Lago on Friday, Trump acknowledged that he personally reviewed the AI-generated video before it was shared on his social media account, but said his attention was focused on material he described as related to voter fraud.
“I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine,” Trump said.
“It was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud.”
The video appeared late Thursday night amid a burst of Truth Social posts on Trump’s account amplifying debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
Near the end of the clip, Barack and Michelle Obama briefly appeared as apes—imagery long associated with racist caricatures of Black Americans. The post remained online for nearly 12 hours before being removed.
The incident sparked swift bipartisan backlash, including from several Republicans who urged Trump to take it down. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who Trump considered for his VP in 2024, called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House” and publicly pressed Trump to remove the post.
Trump, however, refused to take responsibility. He claimed he passed the video on to a staffer to post on his behalf, and blamed aides for failing to review it in full before publishing it to his account.
“Nobody knew that that was in the end,” he said, referring to the racist imagery.
“If they would have looked, they would have seen it, and probably they would have had the sense to take it down.”
“Somebody slipped and missed a very small part,” Trump added.
The comments undercut the White House’s earlier attempt to shift responsibility to an unnamed staffer.
A senior administration official had previously told CNN that “a White House staffer erroneously made the post” and that it was taken down once discovered.
Trump did not repeat that explanation—and appeared to contradict it—when questioned directly.
Pressed on what message he had for Americans offended by the imagery, Trump dismissed the question altogether.
“I didn’t know about it,” he said. “I have no message.”
Trump’s explanation also clashes with longstanding reporting about how his social media operation functions.
While the president frequently posts himself, access to his Truth Social account typically runs through a small, tightly controlled circle of senior aides.
Those known to help draft or post on Trump’s behalf include Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, a longtime gatekeeper of the president’s online presence, and Natalie Harp, a close aide known as the “Human Printer,” who has been known to assist Trump with messaging and post preparation.
Former Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said the explanation offered by the White House never added up.
Speaking to NewsNation, Mulvaney noted that access to Trump’s social media accounts has historically been tightly controlled and that the timing of the post, near midnight, narrowed the pool of who could have authorized it.
“If I were chief of staff, I’d go to the president, name the staffer, fire them—and I’d offer my resignation,“ Mulvaney said.
Trump, however, offered no indication that anyone would be disciplined and showed no sign of regret.
When asked whether the staffer blamed by the White House would be fired, Trump replied simply: “No.”
The White House has not clarified how Trump’s account of events squared with its initial claim that a staffer alone was responsible for the post.
Trump, for his part, made his position clear.
“I didn’t make a mistake,” he said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for additional comment.
