WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday deleted from his social media account a video clip depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, following fierce backlash from Democrats and some Republicans who called it racist and urged the president to take it down.

The White House initially defended the president’s post, saying it was an “internet meme video” and characterized the criticism of the post as “fake outrage.” But as public criticism mounted, the president’s team shifted the blame on an unnamed staffer.

“A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down,” a White House official said in a statement.

The image showing the Obamas as primates, while “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” played in the background, was posted by Trump on his official Truth Social account on Thursday night. It appeared toward the end of a one-minute video clip that promoted a conspiracy theory about purported voting irregularities in the 2020 presidential election.

When asked about the image Friday morning, the White House said the clip was taken from “an internet meme video” that depicted Trump as a lion and several high-profile Democrats — including former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff and California Gov. Gavin Newsom — as other animals.

“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement.

Leavitt provided a link to the original video clip, which was shared by a social media account in October and was captioned: “President Trump: King of the Jungle.”

The video clip Trump shared Thursday included only the image of the Obamas, with no other Democrats rendered as animals.

When defending the post, Leavitt said in her statement to reporters: “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

The post, however, quickly drew fierce criticism from Democrats, some Republicans and civil rights organizations. The imagery was condemned for echoing long-standing racist tropes that have historically been used to demean Black Americans.

“Trump posting this video — especially during Black History Month — is a stark reminder of how Trump and his followers truly view people,” the NAACP wrote on X. “And we’ll remember that in November.”

Newsom, a Democrat, said it was “disgusting behavior by the president” to amplify such an image.

“Every single Republican must denounce this. Now,” Newsom wrote on X.

Sen. Tim Scott, a Black South Carolina Republican who is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said the image was “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”

“The President should remove it,” Scott wrote on X.

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