President Donald Trump ignited a political firestorm after posting—and later deleting—a racist video on Truth Social depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes, while days later attacking Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime performance.
Trump took to social media Sunday, February 8, 2026, to blast Bad Bunny’s show, calling it “absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER.” Trump—who skipped the Super Bowl and instead attended a watch party in Florida—denounced the performance as “a slap in the face” and said “nobody understands a word” the Puerto Rican rapper was saying.
The president said it didn’t make sense, insulted the greatness of America, and failed to reflect our ideals of success, creativity, or excellence. He claimed that there was nothing inspiring about the “disastrous” show and predicted that the Fake News Media would praise it because, in his view, they have no understanding of what is happening in the real world.
Bad Bunny performed just a week after making Grammys history, winning album of the year for “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” the first Spanish-language album to claim the Recording Academy’s top prize.
The Grammy-winning singer and songwriter delivered a mostly Spanish-language performance, using vivid colors and intricate choreography to celebrate Latin culture during a time of rising tensions over immigration in the United States.
At the close of his performance, Bad Bunny ended by saying God Bless America, after delivering several of his major hits in Spanish and honoring Puerto Rico, which is a U.S. territory. Although some people might see the remark as a bold statement on immigration, Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917, even though they cannot vote for president and lack voting representation in Congress.
The 62-second racist video that caused an uproar was shared overnight on Thursday, February 5, on Trump’s Truth Social account. It featured claims about alleged voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election set to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” The racist clip of the Obamas appeared about 59 seconds into the video, which pushed baseless claims about problems with electronic voting machines. The video carried the watermark of Patriot News Outlet, while the Obama imagery appears to have originated from an October post by conservative meme creator Xerias.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday, February 6, Trump said he only saw the first part of the since-deleted video that focused on debunked claims about the 2020 election. “No, I didn’t make a mistake,” Trump said when asked if he would apologize. He added that he didn’t see the full video, saying, “I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine.”
The post drew swift condemnation from both sides of the aisle. Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican in the Senate and a close Trump ally, said, “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” Representative Mike Lawler, a vulnerable New York Republican, condemned the post and called on Trump to apologize, writing on X that it was “wrong and incredibly offensive — whether intentional or a mistake — and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered.”
The White House initially defended the post through Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said, “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 added: “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Hours later, the White House backtracked. “A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down,” an official said. Florida Representative Byron Donalds, a longtime Trump supporter running for governor, had his team call the White House about the post. “Team Byron Donalds called the White House and learned that a staffer had let POTUS down,” a campaign official said.
Democratic leaders unleashed fierce criticism. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote on X: “President Obama and Michelle Obama are brilliant, compassionate and patriotic Americans. They represent the best of this country. Donald Trump is a vile, unhinged, and malignant bottom feeder.” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker declared flatly: “Donald Trump is a racist.” California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office called it “disgusting behavior by the president” and said, “Every single Republican must denounce this.”
Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, condemned the video as “blatantly racist, disgusting, and utterly despicable.” Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser in the Obama White House, wrote: “Let it haunt Trump and his racist followers that future Americans will embrace the Obamas as beloved figures while studying him as a stain on our country.”
The original meme video depicted several prominent Democrats as animals, including former Vice President Joe Biden as a baboon, former Vice President 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 Trump’s account posted to Truth Social. The Obamas have yet to comment on the video.
Trump defended his handling of the situation, telling reporters, “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, generally they look at the whole thing, I guess somebody didn’t, and they posted and we took it down.”
Republican Senator John Curtis of Utah joined colleagues in denouncing the racist video, describing it as “blatantly racist and inexcusable” and saying on X that it should never have been posted or left up for so long.
The incident came during the first week of Black History Month, using a centuries-old trope against the first Black president and first lady in U.S. history. The video remained online for nearly 12 hours before the White House took it down amid bipartisan outrage. Despite the backlash, Trump showed no indication he would apologize, maintaining the error belonged to his staff rather than accepting responsibility as the account holder.