President Donald Trump deleted a racist video on his social media account that depicted former President and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys, following criticism from a bipartisan group of members of Congress

“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) wrote on X on Friday morning, before the post was deleted. “The President should remove it”

The post, a minutelong video rife with conspiracy theories about voting machines in the 2020 election, cuts to a short clip of the Obamas in monkey form, dancing to the tune of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” a 1961 song featured in the Disney hit, “The Lion King”[…]
The post drew widespread backlash from Democrats. But the criticism from Scott — a longtime ally of Trump, once viewed as a potential vice presidential candidate, and the only Black Republican in the Senate — is particularly notable

In a statement issued before Scott’s criticism, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the backlash and said the clip came from a longer video that showed Trump as the Lion King and depicted top Democrats as jungle characters. Among others, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) — all longtime rivals of the president — are shown as an elephant, boar, meerkat and giraffe, respectively

But none of the other Democrats were included in Trump’s post

“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” Leavitt said. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public”[…]
Speaking to reporters Friday evening, Trump said he sent the video to a staffer to review for posting to his account, but that he only “looked at the first part”