White Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is lashing out at the media for covering President Donald Trump’s latest racially offensive post, accusing reporters of manufacturing outrage instead of focusing on issues she claims matter more to the public. The backlash began after Trump shared a distur bing AI-generated video on social media overnight that animates one of his most prominent political adversaries using a racist trope. Rather than address the content of the post, Leavitt quickly downplayed the video and condemned journalists for amplifying it during the news cycle on Friday. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on July 17, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) The video depicts former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes, imagery that has sparked widespread outrage across social media platforms. Many critics say the animation is a blatant example of the racial rhetoric Trump has promoted for years and underscores what they see as his continued hostility toward diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts nationwide. ‘Ooooof!’: Trump Picked a Nasty Fight With Newsom and Everything Went Sideways — Now Noem and Dr. Oz Are Catching Strays They Never Signed Up For “You really have no excuse for portraying black ppl as apes during BHM or anytime for that matter. Remember, he got fined for refusing to rent to black folk,” wrote civil rights attorney and CNN commentator, Bakari Sellers on Threads.  “Anyway, if you voted for Trump, no I don’t think you’re racists, that’s a stupid illogical leap. You are however comfortable with voting for one. That’s on you,” he added. “The most foundational racist idea is likening Black people to apes. Since humans evolved from an ape-like ancestor, racist ideas cast White people as the most evolved people and the furthest away on the evolutionary scale from apes,” wrote award-winning historian and author, Ibram X. Kendi. “Racist ideas cast Black people as the least evolved people and the closest on the evolutionary scale to apes. Almost all racist ideas build on this foundational one expressed by Trump.” Leavitt, however, dismissed the outrage as exaggerated and claimed that critics were deliberately misreading the video’s intent. “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 in a statement to Newsweek. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.” Leavitt also circulated a 55-second video originally posted in October by the @XERIAS_X account, which appears to be the source material for the Obama clip. Set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” the video portrays various politicians and celebrities as animals, including former Vice President Kamala Harris as a tortoise, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as a meerkat, and Whoopi Goldberg as a hippopotamus, while Trump is depicted as a lion. Instead of fading, the backlash intensified, with Leavitt herself becoming a focal point of online anger as the controversy spread. “These administration, the lot of them, is a grouping of the most despicable, vile, craven, racist, pedophile protecting, hateful, lying, corrupt, deceitful, gaslighting, anti-American, democracy-destroying Cult Members ever to darken our country’s history,” one Threads user wrote. “Bullsh—t. Hang this twat up by her toes and we can stone her,” another user wrote. “All I can say is, she must be getting paid well to defend the POS,” another person wrote. Trump’s promotion of racially charged imagery comes as his administration has moved aggressively to DEI initiatives across the federal government. Since returning to office last year, he has signed executive orders eliminating DEI offices, purging diversity language from federal agencies, and rolling back requirements aimed at addressing discrimination in hiring and contracting. His administration has also signaled hostility toward private-sector DEI programs, encouraging investigations and restrictions that critics say are designed to chill efforts to address systemic racism. Opponents argue these moves reflect a broader campaign to erase hard-fought civil rights gains while normalizing rhetoric that marginalizes communities of color. Trump’s history of racial discrimination allegations long predates his presidency. In the 1970s, the U.S. Justice Department sued Trump and his father’s real estate company for refusing to rent apartments to Black tenants, accusing the company of marking applications from Black applicants and steering them away from predominantly white buildings. The case was resolved with a consent decree requiring the Trumps to change their rental practices, a chapter critics frequently cite as early evidence of the racially exclusionary behavior that continues to shadow Trump’s public life decades later. “There are no respectable Trump supporters. If you support Donald Trump, you are a racist. Period. Full stop,” political commentator Keith Boykin declared. ‘Bullsh-t!’: Karoline Leavitt Faces Calls to Be ‘Stoned’ After Dismissing Outrage Over Trump’s Most Racist Attack on Barack and Michelle Obama Yet ...read more read less