Trump says he didn’t see full Obama meme, claims he missed offensive ending

President Donald Trump said he did not see the controversial ending of a video posted to his Truth Social account that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, insisting he would not have shared it had he known how it ended.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday night while travelling to Florida, Trump said he had already spoken to Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, after Scott demanded the video be taken down.

“I spoke to Tim Scott. He was great. Tim is a great guy. He understood that 100%,” Trump said.

“I didn’t see the whole thing,” Trump added. “I guess during the end of it there was some kind of a picture that people don’t like. I wouldn’t like it either.”

“I liked the beginning,” Trump said. “I didn’t see it. I looked at the first part.”

He said the opening segment was about “voter fraud in some place, Georgia,” and that he passed it on without viewing the rest.

“Generally they look at the whole thing, but I guess somebody didn’t,” Trump said. “We took it down as soon as we found out.”

The video was deleted from Trump’s Truth Social account hours later, following a growing backlash.

“No, I didn’t make a mistake,” he said. “I mean, I look at a lot of — thousands of things. I looked at the beginning of it, it was fine.”

“Please stop the fake outrage,” Leavitt added.

However, as criticism mounted — including from several senior Republicans — the White House later sought to distance the President from the video, stressing that it had been removed once the issue was identified.