Donald Trump set the internet ablaze with fury after his latest post on Truth Social. CNN briefly halted their live coverage on Friday to address the latest furore surrounding the US president. Trump said he “didn’t see” the part of a social media video which showed a racist clip depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
The clip – set to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight – was at the end of a 62-second video he shared containing claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The video was later removed. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said “I didn’t make a mistake” when asked whether he was going to apologise.
In a breaking news broadcast, host Erin Burnett paused her live coverage to play an audio of Trump’s response to the post. He is heard saying, “I looked at the first part and it was really about voter fraud and the machines, how crooked it is, how disgusting it is.”
“Then I gave it to the people to look at the whole thing,” Trump went on, “but I guess somebody didn’t.”
Host Erin Burnett dubbed the horrendous video as ” racist and offensive” after the White House took 12 hours to take the post down.
She was joined by political reporter Astead W.Herndon and attorney Andrew Yang to discuss Trump’s latest blow up.
Herndon said: “The initial response was to defend it as it always is with the Trump White House. And then the blow back and we have seen further retractions.
When I saw it this morning it was both shocking and not shocking. Like, at one reality you have the president engaging in racist behaviour, but you also have president who had his whole political rise tied to those very things.”
He continued: “The origin story of Donald Trump is a racist conspiracy about Barack Obama.”
Herndon suggested the White House are losing credibility.
“They are putting their officials out there, Karoline Leavitt included, and whether it’s Minneapolis, or whether it’s Trump’s health, or whether it’s this video, they’re increasingly asking the public to not believe what’s in front of them,” he stated.
In a devastating blow to the president, he suggested this has contributed to the president’s “increasing unpopularity with the electorate”.
Trump’s predecessor in the White House, Joe Biden, is also depicted as an ape eating a banana. The Obamas have yet to comment on the video.