Connecticut Officials Condemn Racist Trump Post Depicting Obamas as Apes
At a glance:
Trump’s account posted racist video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, imagery white supremacists have used for centuries to dehumanize Black people
Connecticut leaders including Lamont, Looney and Duff condemned the post as “abhorrent” and called on state Republicans to denounce it
White House initially defended post, calling response “fake outrage,” then deleted video hours later and blamed unnamed staffer
Decent people in Connecticut and across the nation reacted with disgust Friday after a late-night post on Donald Trump’s Truth Social account depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys, in a video evoking explicitly racist imagery.
Trump’s post featured a video showing the faces of the first Black president and first lady superimposed over apes’ bodies. According to Reuters, “white supremacists have for centuries depicted people of African ancestry as monkeys as part of campaigns to dehumanize and dominate Black populations.”
Democratic officials in Connecticut condemned the racist post. Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney and Majority Leader Bob Duff called the video “abhorrent” and “disgraceful.”
“Whenever President Trump seems to have hit bottom, he always seems to find a new way to shock his fellow citizens and embarrass himself,” Looney and Duff said. “Whether it is blatantly racist behavior like this or him being mentioned hundreds if not thousands of times in the Epstein files, President Trump would not be tolerated in our politics if we had a normal Republican Party.”
Meanwhile, Gov. Ned Lamont posted a statement defending the Obamas as having served the country with integrity.
“Videos like this try to erase that progress, spreading harmful stereotypes that drive discrimination and violence,” Lamont said. “Connecticut stands firmly against racism and for dignity and respect.”
Looney and Duff called on Connecticut Republicans to denounce the racist attack. GOP leaders were fond of demanding that Democrats tone down their rhetoric or “lower the temperature,” they said.
“If this isn’t rhetoric that crosses the line, what is?” Looney and Duff asked. “If a leader stays silent when the head of his political party has normalized an explicitly racist attack, he becomes complicit in that racism. We believe our colleagues in Connecticut are better than that, and we call on them to make their integrity known.”
The Trump White House initially defended the racist post. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed concerns as “fake outrage,” according to USA Today. Hours later, the White House backtracked, deleted the video and blamed the post on an unnamed staffer.
By Hugh McQuaid