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The blowback to Trump's racist video reveals his weakness
Even his allies don't want to be anywhere near him.
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Late Thursday night, President Donald Trump posted a short video which included a horrifically racist image portraying former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as apes.
This was ugly and inexcusable, but not exactly a surprise. Trump has been a vile racist for his entire adult life and has said and promoted vile racism over his last 10 years in and out of the White House. This time, though, was different — not really because of the content, but because of the backlash from within his own party.
The video and its racism were denounced by a wide range of Republicans, including staunch Trump allies. As far as the GOP is concerned, the disgusting video seems to be the worst thing Trump has done since the 2021 insurrection.
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Again, the video is shocking and repulsive. But it’s difficult to see why it has sparked more outrage among Republicans than (for example) Trump’s reprehensible effort to smear Alex Pretti, the VA nurse murdered by CBP agents in Minneapolis last month, as an “agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist.” Nor did Republicans leap up to denounce Trump when he attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar in December with racist slurs, calling her “garbage” and saying she should be “sent back” to Somalia. Nor did they respond to Trump’s slurry of bigotry and gibberish at the National Prayer Breakfast less than 24 hours before he posted the racist Obama video.
Given the GOP’s willingness to back this grotesque racist for a decade, it seems unlikely that they have suddenly somehow come to their senses and/or discovered their heretofore hidden secret spines. What has changed is not Trump’s racism (which is the same as it ever was) but Trump’s poll numbers (which have dropped precipitously).
Republicans are looking for ways to distance themselves from Trump as the midterms approach. That’s a dynamic which Democrats, and all Trump opponents, can exploit — not least because Trump, as he has made clear, is not going to stop being racist.
Racist posts racist video
The video Trump posted was a riff on conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Toward the end, it included a short AI-generated clip which showed images of the Obamas’ faces, their mouths open, superimposed on the bodies of apes. The background music is “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” (You can watch it here.)
Trump claims he watched only the beginning of the clip, then passed it to a staffer to post.
“Generally, they look at the whole thing. But I guess somebody didn’t,” he said.
