On Truth Social last week, President Trump shared a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
Wrong any time of year, but inappropriate to a new level to share this during Black History Month.
The post remained visible for roughly 12 hours before it was taken down. In the aftermath, his administration first suggested the public was overreacting, then blamed a staffer who allegedly posted it by mistake. The president has offered no apology or condemnation of the video in any form.
This raises an important question: have Americans been led to believe that Trump’s social media posts are his own? He regularly writes in the first person, using phrases like “I will” or “I just heard.” So which is it? Are these posts truly from him, or does staff handle them?
If aides manage the account, then why has he surrounded himself with people who find racist imagery acceptable or even humorous? And if, as claimed, the video was not watched all the way through, why would any presidential social media operation share content without fully scrutinizing it?
But we all know the most likely truth. President Trump understood exactly what he was posting. Just as he has long emphasized “Hussein” when saying President Obama’s name, he knows precisely how to signal to the worst impulses among his supporters. This was not an accident. It was a message.
Georgia’s late Congressman John Lewis reminded us: “We are one people, one family, the human family, and what affects one of us affects us all.” Let that sink in this Black History Month.
Ace Jones, Greensboro