{"id":454244,"date":"2026-02-07T09:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T09:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/454244\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T09:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T09:44:08","slug":"trump-news-at-a-glance-trump-creates-distance-but-no-apology-after-promoting-racist-video-of-obamas-trump-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/454244\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump news at a glance: Trump creates distance, but no apology, after promoting racist video of Obamas | Trump administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top Democrats erupted with fury on Friday and challenged more Republicans to respond to Donald Trump<\/a> posting a racist video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama<\/a> as apes.<\/p>\n

The clip appeared during one of the 79-year-old US president\u2019s increasingly frequent<\/a> late-night posting sprees to his Truth Social account, and shows the laughing faces of the former president and first lady superimposed on the bodies of primates in a jungle setting to The Lion Sleeps Tonight.<\/p>\n

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader and New York congressman, in a post<\/a> on X: \u201cWhy are GOP leaders like [Senate majority leader] John Thune continuing to stand by this sick individual? Every single Republican must immediately denounce Donald Trump\u2019s disgusting bigotry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only a few Republicans spoke out about the overtly racist video. Tim Scott, a South Carolina senator and the only Black Republican in that chamber, called it \u201cthe most racist thing I\u2019ve seen out of this White House\u201d and called on the president to remove it.<\/p>\n

It took 12 hours \u2013 during which time administration officials tried to brush off the outrage and defend Trump\u2019s repost as \u201can internet meme video\u201d \u2013 before the post was removed.<\/p>\n

Multiple outlets cited a senior White House official saying the post was \u201cerroneously\u201d made by a White House staffer.<\/p>\n

Trump weighed in from Air Force One later Friday, refusing to apologize and claiming that while he approved an aide sharing the video on his account, he didn\u2019t see the part of the clip with the racist depiction of the Obamas.<\/p>\n

Neither of the top two Republicans in Congress, Thune and Mike Johnson, the House speaker, offered comment, prompting Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, to post<\/a> on X: \u201cRacist. Vile. Abhorrent. This is dangerous and degrades our country \u2013 where are Senate Republicans?<\/p>\n

Read the full story<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump says he\u2019ll free funds for New York if Penn Station is renamed after him<\/p>\n

Donald Trump<\/a> has told the Senate\u2019s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer<\/a>, that he will unfreeze funds for major infrastructure projects in New York City if he supports renaming Dulles international airport and Penn Station after him.<\/p>\n

Read the full story<\/a><\/p>\n

Iran says \u2018good start\u2019 made in talks with US over nuclear programme<\/p>\n

Indirect talks between Iran and the US on the future of Iran\u2019s nuclear programme ended on Friday with a broad agreement to maintain a diplomatic path, possibly with further talks in the coming days, according to statements from Iran and the Omani hosts.<\/p>\n

Read the full story<\/a><\/p>\n

Pardoned January 6 rioter pleads guilty to threatening Hakeem Jeffries<\/p>\n

A rioter who was pardoned by Donald Trump<\/a> for the felony he was convicted of in the storming<\/a> of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021<\/a> has pleaded guilty to a harassment charge over threats to kill the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries.<\/p>\n

Read the full story<\/a><\/p>\n

Dow Jones hits 50,000 milestone amid tech gains and hopes of lower rates<\/p>\n

The Dow Jones<\/a> industrial average crossed 50,000 for the first time, as ballooning tech valuations, robust corporate earnings and hopes of lower interest rates drive it to new highs. Donald Trump<\/a> has repeatedly hailed the record stock market highs, and tried to claim the market climb as evidence of the success of US tariffs \u2013 his central economic policy \u2013 which have soared to their highest effective level since 1935 on his watch.<\/p>\n

Read the full story.<\/a><\/p>\n

What else happened today:<\/p>\n

Over two days of questioning during his Senate confirmation hearings last year, Robert F Kennedy Jr repeated the same answer. He said the closely scrutinized trip he took to Samoa in 2019,<\/a> which came ahead of a devastating measles outbreak, had \u201cnothing to do with vaccines<\/a>\u201d. Documents obtained by the Guardian and the Associated Press undermine that testimony.<\/p>\n

The search for Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of NBC\u2019s Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie entered its sixth day<\/a> on Friday in Arizona<\/a>, as authorities said they believe she is still alive.<\/p>\n

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth<\/a>, has said the Pentagon is ending all military training, fellowships and certificate programs with Harvard University<\/a>, marking the Trump administration<\/a>\u2019s latest escalation against the Ivy League school.<\/p>\n

This weekend, tens of thousands of people will make their way to the Bay Area city of Santa Clara<\/a>, ready to celebrate a weekend at the Super Bowl<\/a>. Beneath the jubilant mood, some residents and officials have been grappling with the possibility<\/a> of ICE enforcement operations during the game, and taking steps to prepare.<\/p>\n

The far-right influencer and US Senate candidate Jake Lang<\/a> has been arrested after recording himself damaging an anti-ICE sculpture at Minnesota\u2019s capitol<\/a> amid the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency\u2019s crackdown there.<\/p>\n

The outcome of a special Democratic primary to fill a US House of Representatives seat representing northern New Jersey was on a knife-edge on Friday<\/a>, after a progressive challenger took a surprise lead over a former Democratic congressman who initially appeared to have won the nomination.<\/p>\n

Catching up? Here\u2019s what happened Thursday 5 February<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top Democrats erupted with fury on Friday and challenged more Republicans to respond to Donald Trump posting a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-454244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}