Last week, Donald Trump posted an AI-generated video that showed Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.

While Trump eventually took down the clip and blamed a nameless staffer for it, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called him out.

Related

Pete Buttigieg slams Trump’s “crazy” & “dangerous” threats against Greenland

“Racist garbage continues to emanate from this President and his White House,” Buttigieg posted to social media. “his use of AI is simply the newest form of an old pattern: open racism from Donald Trump.”

Buttigieg stressed that, even though Trump’s racism has been part of the public record for decades at this point, people shouldn’t “shrug it off.”

Insights for the LGBTQ+ community

Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

“Decency, dignity, and humanity matter, even now. Especially now,” he wrote.

Racist garbage continues to emanate from this President and his White House.

— Pete Buttigieg (@petebuttigieg.bsky.social) 2026-02-06T23:48:43.949Z

From his now-deleted and grotesque post targeting the Obamas, to his doctored image that altered the expression and skin tone of a Black civil rights lawyer, his use of AI is simply the newest form of an old pattern: open racism from Donald Trump.

— Pete Buttigieg (@petebuttigieg.bsky.social) 2026-02-06T23:48:43.970Z

Just because we aren't totally surprised, doesn't mean we can shrug it off. Decency, dignity, and humanity matter, even now. Especially now.

— Pete Buttigieg (@petebuttigieg.bsky.social) 2026-02-06T23:48:44.012Z

Last Thursday, Trump posted a video to Truth Social that falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen. The video included an AI-generated clip of the Obamas as apes while the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” played.

“Trump is a vile racist old man,” wrote Rep. Herb Conaway (D-NJ) on social media. “The people in the @HouseGOP that don’t speak out on this, I’m going to assume you support this racism.”

Even Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who is Black, called out Trump, saying the video was “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”

At first, the White House defended the video, saying it was just a “meme video” and accused media outlets that reported on it of “fake outrage.”

But after that didn’t stop people from pointing out how racist the video was, Trump deleted it from his account and claimed he “didn’t see” that the video included the part about the Obamas. A White House spokesperson said that he “erroneously” posted it.

The White House then said that it was a staffer who posted it without Trump knowing that the video was racist.

“No, I looked at the first part. It was really about voter fraud and the machines – how crooked it is, how disgusting it is,” Trump said on Air Force One on Friday. “Then I gave it to the people, generally they’d look at the whole thing, but I guess somebody didn’t and they posted it. And then we deleted it.”

A reporter asked him whether he would fire the staffer who posted it, and he said no.

“Are you going to apologize?” the reporter asked.

“No,” Trump replied. “I didn’t make a mistake.”

The “staffer” still hasn’t been named.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.