Obamas, silent on racist Trump ape post, cheer on US Olympic team

What message did Obamas send to Team USA at Winter Olympics?

What is Obamas' strategy toward Trump's provocations?

Who criticized Trump's Obama ape video?

What caused Michelle Obama's 'Becoming' viewership surge?

Barack and Michelle Obama haven’t responded to President Donald Trump’s racist social media post portraying them as apes in the jungle.

But on Feb. 6, they posted a shared message of encouragement for American athletes competing at the 2026 Winter Olympics just underway in Italy.

“To all the athletes representing @TeamUSA: I’m so proud of you,” Obama wrote on X about the Milano Cortina 2026 games. “Your talent and perseverance have brought you to this moment, and Michelle and I will be joining Americans from across the country cheering you on.”

The post was seen by 41 million people as of Saturday morning.

The Obamas have rarely responded to Trump’s provocations, dating back to when the real estate mogul first gained headlines as a dark horse political candidate with “birther” falsehoods suggesting Obama was not a native-born U.S. citizen but was actually from Africa.

But given the near-global condemnation of Trump for his latest post, the Obamas’ congratulatory message for the athletes was seen as something of a response by their many supporters.

“Show us you're unbothered without telling us you're unbothered.... #Respect #ARealPresident,” the NAACP posted on X.

“Today I GOTTA give some love to the FIRST Black President of America @POTUS44 @BarackObama and @FLOTUS44@MichelleObama true class and excellence personified,” Eldridge Recasner, a former NBA guard and TV basketball analyst, posted on X under the message #BlackHistoryMonth, which started at the beginning of February. “Guess some have a right to be jealous of them as they set the Bar HIGH at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave”

The video, among dozens of posts on Trump’s Truth Social account in the late hours of Feb. 5 and early hours of Feb. 6, provoked a firestorm of criticism, and conflicting accounts from the White House as to exactly how the racist trope was retweeted by the president’s account.

The White House initially dismissed criticismthat the Obama video was racist and said it is from a meme depicting Trump and the Obamas as characters from the movie “The Lion King.” But the post was removed after about 12 hours and a White House official later told USA TODAY a staffer erroneously posted it.

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The brief portion of the video with the Obamas appears to have been created by artificial intelligence. It depicts the bodies of two apes with the faces of the former president and first lady. Apes are flying around in the background of what appears to be a jungle.

Critics, including Republican lawmakers, have roundly condemned Trump for the post.

Sen. Tim Scott, a close Trump ally and prominent Black Republican from South Carolina who is leading the Senate’s campaign efforts this year, wrote he was “praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”

But Trump has refused to apologize for the post, saying he didn’t view the entire video before passing it along to staff.

"I look at a lot of, thousands, of things," Trump told reporters while traveling on Air Force One to Florida on Feb. 6. "And I looked at the beginning of it, it was fine."

Asked about calls from GOP lawmakers for him to apologize, Trump said he didn't plan to. He later said "of course I do" when asked if he condemned the racist part of the video.

But, Trump said, “I didn't make a mistake."