Description: President Trump reportedly reposted a video on Truth Social that portrayed Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, imagery widely condemned as racist. The post was reportedly later deleted after public outcry, including criticism from some Republicans. The content was described by critics as an AI-driven meme/deepfake-style clip, an example of purportedly AI-amplified racist propaganda and harm to social trust.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Unknown synthetic media developers developed an AI system deployed by Donald Trump , Unidentified X user and Trump Administration, which harmed Barack Obama , Michelle Obama , Epistemic integrity , Black Americans and Black people.
Alleged implicated AI system: Unknown synthetic media technology
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1363
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2026-02-05
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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President Trump posted a blatantly racist video clip portraying former President Barack Obama and the former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, but he insisted he had nothing to apologize for even after he deleted the video following an out…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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