Barack Obama addresses Trump posting racist video of him and Michelle Obama as apes
Topics: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Michelle Obama, Racism
Kiesha Dosanjh
Featured Image Credit: Debra L Rothenberg/WireImage
Topics: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Michelle Obama, Racism
Former President Barack Obama has one again addressed President Donald Trump’s racist video of himself and his wife, Michelle Obama, saying he ‘doesn’t take it personally’.
The video was posted by Donald Trump’s Truth Social Account in February and depicted the USA’s first black president and his wife as apes. In the video, which has since been deleted after outrage online, the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight could be heard playing in the background.
The AI-generated video featured unsubstantiated claims about election fraud.
At the time, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that people were showing ‘fake outrage’.
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Trump later condemned the racist parts of the video, claiming he only looked at the beginning. However, he did not explicitly apologise.
Now, Barack Obama has had his say.
“I don’t take it personally,” the former POTUS said in an interview with The New Yorker.
“I mean, I’m always offended when my wife and kids get dragged into things, because they didn’t choose this … That’s a line that even people whose politics I deeply reject, I would expect them to care about. I would never talk about somebody’s family in that way.”
Obama then raised his concerns about the AI videos the White House post, which he said treat war 'like a video game'.
It’s not the first time Obama has addressed the videos. Back in February, when the videos were posted, the 64-year-old said: "It's important to recognise that the majority of the American people find this behaviour deeply troubling.
"It is true that it gets attention. It's true that it's a distraction,” he continued, before saying that “decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office” have been lost.
However, the former POTUS did not mention Trump by name.
Elsewhere in the recent interview, former President Obama revealed that his choices to speak out against former President Trump have put a strain on his marriage with his wife, Michelle Obama.
The couple have been married since 1992, and recently celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary.
They have two children together, Malia, 27, and Sasha, 24.
However, their long standing relationship doesn’t come without problems - Obama admitted. One of these is Trump.
He admitted in the lengthy interview that the back and forth digs from Trump ‘creates genuine tension’ in the Obama household.
“It frustrates her,” he said of Michelle.
Obama, who was the first black president of the United States continued: “I’m more forgiving of it, in the sense that I understand why people feel that way, because people aren’t looking at me in historical comparison to other presidents.”