Former President Donald Trump recently sparked a political controversy after he posted a racist video on Truth Social, which he later deleted. The video depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. A few days later, Trump criticized Bad Bunny’s halftime performance at Super Bowl LX.
On February 8, 2026, Trump used social media to express his dissatisfaction with Bad Bunny’s performance, describing it as “absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER”. Instead of attending the Super Bowl, Trump watched it in Florida and criticized the performance as “a slap in the face”, claiming that “nobody understands a word” the Puerto Rican rapper was saying.
According to Trump, the performance didn’t align with American values of success, creativity, and excellence. He described the show as uninspiring and “disastrous”. He also predicted that mainstream media, which he often refers to as the Fake News Media, would laud the performance due to their apparent lack of understanding of real-world occurrences.
Bad Bunny’s performance came on the heels of his historic victory at the Grammys. He won the album of the year award for “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” becoming the first Spanish-language album to receive the Recording Academy’s highest honor.
The Grammy-winning artist delivered a performance mainly in Spanish, utilizing vibrant colors and intricate choreography to highlight Latin culture amidst escalating immigration controversies in the United States.
Bad Bunny concluded his performance by saying “God Bless America”, after performing many of his popular hits in Spanish and paying tribute to Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. Some may interpret his remarks as a bold statement on immigration. However, Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917, despite their inability to vote for the president or have voting representation in Congress.
The controversial racist video that Trump posted on Truth Social on February 5, lasted 62 seconds and stirred up widespread criticism. It contained unfounded allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and featured the racist depiction of the Obamas 59 seconds into the video. The clip featured a watermark of Patriot News Outlet and seems to have originated from an October post by conservative meme creator Xerias.
When questioned about the video aboard Air Force One on February 6, Trump said he only saw the first part of the video that focused on debunked allegations about the 2020 election. He denied making a mistake and stated that he did not see the entire video.
The post received immediate and widespread condemnation from politicians on both sides. Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is also the only Black Republican in the Senate and a close Trump ally, expressed his hope that the video was fake, describing it as the most racist thing he had seen from the White House. Representative Mike Lawler, a vulnerable New York Republican, demanded an apology from Trump and described the post as “wrong and incredibly offensive.”
Initially, the White House defended the post, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt describing it as an internet meme video depicting Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King. She urged people to stop feigning outrage and focus on more pertinent issues affecting the American public.
However, the White House reversed its stance a few hours later and blamed a White House staffer for the post. The post was subsequently taken down. Byron Donalds, a Florida Representative and Trump supporter who is running for governor, had his team contact the White House about the post and was informed that a staffer had let the president down.
The post was met with severe criticism from Democratic leaders. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries described the Obamas as brilliant, compassionate, and patriotic Americans who represent the best of the country, while he characterized Trump as a vile and unhinged individual. Governors JB Pritzker of Illinois and Gavin Newsom of California also condemned the video, with Pritzker calling Trump a racist and Newsom’s office describing the incident as disgusting behavior by the president.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson and Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser in the Obama White House, also condemned the video. Johnson described the video as “blatantly racist, disgusting, and utterly despicable,” while Rhodes said the Obamas would be remembered as beloved figures, unlike Trump, who would be remembered as a stain on the country.
The original meme video featured several prominent Democrats as animals. However, the version posted on Truth Social by Trump only included the clip of the Obamas. The Obamas have not yet commented on the video.
Republican Senator John Curtis of Utah was among the colleagues who denounced the racist video. He described it as “blatantly racist and inexcusable” and stated that it should never have been posted or left up for so long.
The incident occurred during the first week of Black History Month and involved the use of a centuries-old trope against the first Black president and first lady in U.S. history. The video remained online for approximately 12 hours before it was taken down due to bipartisan outrage. Despite the widespread criticism, Trump did not indicate any intention to apologize, insisting that the error was made by his staff.
