The Aesthetics of Hate in the Oval Office
In the early hours of February 6, 2026, diplomacy and political decency suffered a new blow dealt by the administration of Donald Trump. The current President of the United States used his platform, Truth Social, to disseminate an explicitly racist video targeting Barack and Michelle Obama. In a brief computer-generated segment, the couple’s faces are superimposed onto images of monkeys, set to the soundtrack of “The Lion King.” For international observers and historians, this act is not merely a personal insult but a confirmation of a despotic stance that disregards the boundaries of human dignity in the exercise of power.
Reactionism and the Deepfake War
Since the beginning of his second term in 2025, Trump has intensified the instrumentalization of Artificial Intelligence to dehumanize opponents. The video in question, beyond the racial slurs, resurrects false allegations of electoral fraud involving the Dominion company. This is not an isolated incident; in the past year, the Republican has already shared montages of Obama in prison attire and caricature attacks against Hakeem Jeffries. The irrationality of the message seeks to inflame the conservative base through aesthetic shock and the revival of 19th-century racist tropes.
Editorial Perspectives
Democratic Reaction and Moral Isolation
The response was immediate. California Governor Gavin Newsom classified the behavior as “disgusting” and demanded that the Republican Party formally denounce their leader’s conduct. Ben Rhodes, a former national security advisor, was more emphatic, describing Trump as a “stain on American history,” predicting that the Obamas’ legacy will withstand what he called the current leader’s “racist followers.” The episode occurs at a moment of extreme tension, where the use of the state apparatus for personal attacks raises debates about the sanity and ethics of the command of the world’s leading power.
Takeaways
- Donald Trump uses racist montages to attack Barack and Michelle Obama on social media.
- The content associates the only Black president in U.S. history with animals, a classic practice of racial dehumanization.
- The audiovisual piece also repeats lies about the 2020 elections and the Dominion company.
- Democrats and former security advisors classify the act as unacceptable and demand a Republican denunciation.
Key Facts
- February 6, 2026: Date of the inflammatory publication on Truth Social.
- “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”: The soundtrack used to ridicule the Obama couple.
- Gavin Newsom: California Governor who led the condemnation of the video.
- 2025–2026: Period marked by Trump’s systematic use of AI for political attacks.
