Obama responds to monkey meme, accuses Trump of demeaning presidency: 'Clown show'

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Former President Barack Obama recently claimed political social media has become "a clown show" and accused President Donald Trump of demeaning the presidency when his social media account posted a meme earlier this month that depicted him and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.

Speaking with liberal podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen on a Saturday episode of Cohen's YouTube show, Obama lightly chuckled when Cohen brought up the clip, which was initially uploaded to Trump's Truth Social account late on Feb. 5 in a video about claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

In what appeared to have been screen-captured as part of an auto-play feature, Trump's post ended with the Obamas' faces superimposed on ape bodies amid the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." The full joke video, which subsequently went viral, also shows the heads of multiple Democratic politicians superimposed on the bodies of various animals indigenous to Africa.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is depicted as a warthog; Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as a donkey; and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., as a giraffe. Trump is shown as a lion, at one point dozing in a hammock near House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who is a singing meerkat.

The brief video clip in Trump's post prompted bipartisan condemnation, including from prominent Christian conservatives and Republican members of Congress who called the imagery dehumanizing and unacceptable. The White House at first dismissed the backlash to the video as "fake outrage," though the post was later removed and blamed on a staffer. Trump claimed he "didn't see" the video before it went up and condemned its racist overtones.

Press coverage of the deleted video has lingered for weeks, with Trump most recently being asked about it directly last Friday, when he suggested the outrage over the monkey meme is missing the point of the post, which was to raise concerns about alleged widespread voter fraud in 2020.

Speaking with Cohen, Obama suggested most Americans find Trump's social media activity "deeply troubling."

Barack Obama responds to the Trump Monkey Meme Hoax pic.twitter.com/3NfRDdXVsy

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"It is true that it gets attention, it's true that it's a distraction," Obama said, adding that most of the Americans he encounters "still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness."

"There's this sort of clown show that's happening in social media and on television, and what is true is that there doesn't seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office," he continued. "So that's been lost."

Obama then pivoted from the monkey meme to praise anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and accused federal agents of exhibiting the tactics of "authoritarian countries" and "dictatorships."

Last week, White House border czar Tom Homan announced that the federal surge of immigration enforcement in Minnesota was coming to a close, following weeks of tense protests exacerbated after ICE agents fatally shot Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti last month.

Obama has fielded criticism over the years for condescending comments he has made about political opponents, such as his famous "lipstick on a pig" line during the 2008 presidential campaign, which the McCain campaign took as a misogynistic reference to then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Obama drew criticism that year, even from his running mate, then-Sen. Joe Biden, for an ad claiming 2008 GOP nominee John McCain is unable to send emails, which some interpreted as mocking him for the disabling wounds he sustained under torture in Vietnam. The Obama campaign later walked back Biden's criticism of what he described as a "terrible" ad, claiming it was intended simply to show McCain as "out of touch with the new economic challenges we face today."

While he has typically veered away from crudity, Obama drew raucous laughter during his address to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, when he made a gesture implying Trump's "weird obsession with crowd sizes" is related to insecurity about the size of his genitalia.

Obama's suggestive delivery, which the BBC's "Americast" podcast praised at the time as "subtle," "funny" and "clever," surprised even longtime Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, who claimed that Obama added the crowd size line back himself after Favreau had cut it.

Claiming he was "stunned" when Obama mocked Trump in such a way, Favreau said, "I was like, 'Oh my gosh! Wow!' It's very unlike him."