Washington: President Donald Trump said Friday that he is not prepared to apologise for a racist social media post depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as primates, even after the video was taken down following sharp backlash from both Republicans and Democrats.

“I didn't make a mistake,” Trump said later Friday, hours after the video was deleted from his Truth Social account.

The post, shared late Thursday, sparked immediate condemnation from civil rights leaders and lawmakers across the political spectrum for its offensive portrayal of the nation’s first Black president and first lady. The White House initially defended the post, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissing criticism as “fake outrage,” before later saying a staffer had posted the video in error.

After calls for its removal, including from Republicans, the White House acknowledged the post was a mistake and said it had been taken down. Trump, however, rejected any suggestion that he bore responsibility.

Trump on Friday said he "didn't see" the part of a video posted on his social media account that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys.

"I just looked at the first part... and I didn't see the whole thing," Trump told reporters, adding that he "gave it" to staffers to post and they also didn't watch the full video.

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The 62-second clip largely consisted of footage from a conservative video alleging deliberate tampering with voting machines during the 2020 election, claims that have been repeatedly rejected by courts and election officials. Near the end of the clip is a brief scene of two jungle primates with the Obamas’ faces superimposed on them.

The primate imagery originated from a separate video circulated earlier by a prominent conservative meme creator. That video portrayed Trump as “King of the Jungle” and depicted several Democratic leaders as animals, including then-President Joe Biden, who is white, shown as a primate eating a banana.

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The post came during the first week of Black History Month and only days after Trump issued a proclamation praising “the contributions of black Americans to our national greatness” and “the American principles of liberty, justice, and equality.”

Trump has a long history of attacking the Obamas and using incendiary rhetoric, including promoting the false claim that Obama was not born in the United States and making derogatory remarks about predominantly Black countries.

An Obama spokeswoman said the former president had no response.

The deleted post was part of a burst of overnight activity on Trump’s Truth Social account amplifying his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, assertions that have been dismissed by courts nationwide and by Trump’s own first-term attorney general.