President Donald Trump defended his record on racial issues, declaring, “I am, by the way, the least racist president you’ve had in a long time,” amid criticism over a racist video he briefly posted on social media. The remark came during a gaggle with reporters, where Trump also highlighted his efforts on criminal justice reform and funding for historically Black colleges and universities.
Trump: I’m the least racist president you’ve had in a long time. pic.twitter.com/kG8ZrKSf6v
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 7, 2026
The comment followed a widely condemned post Trump shared late Thursday night on his Truth Social account. The post featured a 62-second video that spliced a blatantly racist clip portraying former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes, set to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” The video also promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. The post drew unusually strong criticism not only from Democrats but from members of Trump’s own party, prompting him to delete it.
BREAKING: Full video that briefly appeared on President Trump’s TruthSocial post. pic.twitter.com/eLLD8yjxmq
— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) February 6, 2026
During his remarks, Trump defended both his record and the content of the post, saying, “Look, we did criminal justice reform. I did historically Black colleges and universities — I got them funded. Nobody has been, and that’s why I got a tremendous — the highest vote with male Black voters that they’ve seen in many, many decades. I’ve done great with Black voters. They’ve been great to me. I’ve been great to them.” He added that criminal justice reform “was maybe more important than anything else” and credited himself with long-term funding for HBCUs, saying previous administrations had failed to provide consistent support.
Trump also addressed the portion of the video that referenced alleged election fraud, claiming that it was a minor section at the end of the clip and that he had shared it because it highlighted a “credible” concern about elections in certain states. He said, “Probably nobody reviewed the end of it. What I saw was really strong — it was about fraudulent elections. When I see that and it’s credible, you put it up. Somebody slipped and missed a very small part. And by the way, this was done by somebody else. This was a re-truth. It was not done by us. But it was a very strong statement about fraudulent elections in a certain part of our country, which are really bad.”
The episode marked a rare retreat for Trump, who has a long history of promoting offensive imagery and racialized attacks on Black Americans and others. His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, initially defended the video, describing it as “an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” and dismissed the backlash as “fake outrage.” However, the video was removed shortly afterward, reflecting the unusually strong bipartisan pushback.
