Pastor Mark Burns, an ally to President Trump, said Friday that the White House staffer who posted a since-deleted racist video depicting former President Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes “should be fired immediately.”
“The President made it clear to me that this post was made by a staffer and not by him,” Burns wrote on the social platform X after he said he spoke to Trump about the video. “My recommendation to the President was direct and firm.”
“That staffer should be fired immediately, and the President should publicly condemn this action,” Burns continued. “This kind of insensitive and racist communication does not reflect the heart, values, or leadership of the President of the United States, nor does it represent the America we are striving to build.”
Burns said Trump assured him “clearly and unequivocally that he did not post it” and that the president “understands the painful and racist history in America of depicting African Americans as apes, a tactic long used by white supremacists to demean Black intelligence and humanity.”
The pastor described the attacks on Black American intelligence from the antebellum period, during the Civil War and during Jim Crow and legal segregation. He said “these same ugly stereotypes have been recycled [today] to undermine Black achievement, leadership, and dignity.”
“Racism must be confronted, not excused,” Burns wrote in conclusion. “Accountability matters. And leaders must always speak clearly when lines are crossed.”
The minute-long video focused on an unsubstantiated voting fraud theory seeking to explain “some of the anomalies that we noticed in the 2020 general elections,” with Trump depicted as the king of the jungle. Trump has been outspoken in claiming, without evidence, that the 2020 election was rigged against him months before and years after he lost to former President Biden.
The last seconds of the video show the Obamas’ heads superimposed on what appeared to be the bodies of primates with their mouths wide open. Their heads bounced along to a soundbite of the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
Earlier on Friday, the White House pushed back on criticism over the video. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was an “internet meme” and told reporters to “stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), the only Black Republican in the Senate, denounced the video. Lawler called it “wrong,” and Scott said the video was “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” Both GOP lawmakers called on Trump to remove it.
The post with the video was deleted a few hours later.
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