Donald Trump, the former U.S. President, sparked controversy by sharing a racially offensive video on Truth Social, which depicted former President Barack Obama and ex-First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. He later deleted this post and in the following days, criticized Bad Bunny’s halftime performance at Super Bowl LX.
On Sunday, February 8, 2026, Trump voiced his displeasure over Bad Bunny’s performance through a social media post, labeling it as “absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER”. Instead of watching the Super Bowl, Trump attended a watch party in Florida, from where he lambasted the performance as a “slap in the face,” adding that “nobody understands a word” uttered by the Puerto Rican rapper.
Trump criticized the performance for failing to depict the American ideals of success, creativity, and excellence, and claimed it insulted the nation’s greatness. He described the show as uninspiring and “disastrous,” and predicted that mainstream media would applaud it, as he believes they lack a grasp of the real world.
Bad Bunny’s performance came a week after his historic win at the Grammys, where his album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” became the first Spanish-language album to secure the top prize from the Recording Academy.
The Grammy-awarded artist delivered a performance primarily in Spanish, employing vibrant colors and complex choreography to celebrate Latin culture amidst escalating immigration tensions in the U.S.
Bad Bunny concluded his show by saying “God Bless America,” after performing several of his hit songs in Spanish and paying tribute to Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. While some may interpret this as a strong statement on immigration, it’s worth noting that Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917, albeit without the ability to vote for president or having voting representation in Congress.
The racially offensive video that stirred controversy was shared on Trump’s Truth Social account overnight on Thursday, February 5. The video, lasting 62 seconds, made baseless allegations about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and included the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. The clip featuring the Obamas appeared 59 seconds in, layered over unfounded claims about issues with electronic voting machines. The video carried the watermark of Patriot News Outlet and the Obama imagery seemingly originated from a post by conservative meme creator Xerias in October.
On Friday, February 6, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he had only seen the initial part of the video focusing on debunked claims about the 2020 election. When asked if he would apologize, he responded, “No, I didn’t make a mistake,” adding that he hadn’t seen the full video.
The post faced strong criticism from both political sides. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican Senator from South Carolina and a close ally of Trump, expressed hope that the video was fake, calling it the most racist thing he has seen from the White House. New York Republican Representative Mike Lawler also condemned the post and urged Trump to apologize, stating on X that it was “wrong and incredibly offensive — whether intentional or a mistake — and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered.”
Initially, the White House defended the post through Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who stated, “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from [T]he Lion King.” She urged people to “stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
A few hours later, the White House retracted and attributed the post to a White House staffer, announcing it had been removed. Byron Donalds, a Florida Representative and staunch Trump supporter running for governor, had his team contact the White House about the post. A campaign official stated, “Team Byron Donalds called the White House and learned that a staffer had let POTUS down.”
Democratic leaders reacted strongly. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries lauded the Obamas as “brilliant, compassionate, and patriotic Americans” and called Trump a “vile, unhinged, and malignant bottom feeder.” Governors JB Pritzker of Illinois and Gavin Newsom of California labeled Trump a racist and called the behavior disgusting, respectively, with Newsom’s office urging all Republicans to denounce it.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson and Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser under Obama, also condemned the video as “blatantly racist, disgusting, and utterly despicable.”
The original meme video featured several Democrats as animals, with former Vice President Joe Biden as a baboon, Kamala Harris as a tortoise, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a hyena, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a donkey, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a warthog. However, only the clip of the Obamas was included in the version posted by Trump’s account on Truth Social. The Obamas have not commented on the video.
John Curtis, a Republican Senator from Utah, joined his colleagues in denouncing the offensive video, terming it as “blatantly racist and inexcusable” and asserting on X that it shouldn’t have been posted or left up for so long.
The incident occurred during the first week of Black History Month, utilizing a long-standing racial stereotype against the first Black president and first lady in U.S. history. The video was online for nearly 12 hours before it was removed by the White House amid bipartisan outrage. Despite the backlash, Trump showed no signs of intending to apologize, insisting that the mistake was his staff’s rather than his own as the account holder.
