President Donald Trump has refused to apologise amid pressure from both Democrats and Republicans after he posted a social media video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys.
Speaking to reporters as he boarded Air Force One on Friday evening, Mr Trump affirmed that he had not done anything wrong.
The President said: "I looked at it. I didn’t see the whole thing. I gave it to the people, they posted."
He told reporters that he did "not see" the part of the video that depicted the former President and First Lady as monkeys.
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Mr Trump said: "What I saw in the beginning was really strong. It was about fraudulent elections. Anytime I see that stuff and it’s credible, you put it up. I didn’t do it."
He added: "This was done by someone else. It was a re-truth but that was a very strong truth."
Despite the alleged error from a staffer, the President affirmed that they would not be losing their job over the incident.
When question whether he would apologise, he declared: "No, I didn’t make a mistake."
Mr Trump affirmed that he had not done anything wrong
|GETTY
Mr Trump added: "Black voters have been great to me. I've been great to them and I am, by the way, the least racist president you've had in a long time, as far as I am concerned."
The minute-long video showed a number of US politicians depicted as different animals, with the the final seconds of the clip showing an AI-generated frame where the Obamas' are artificially imposed on the bodies of apes.
Meanwhile, the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" plays in the background.
The video also repeatedly issues allegations voting ballots enabled fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
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The final seconds of the clip showed the Obamas' heads artificially imposed on the bodies of apes
| GETTYShortly after the video was posted, White House Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: "This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.
"Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public."
However, the video sparked fury from both senior Republican and Democrat figures.
California Governor Gavin Newsom fumed: "Disgusting behaviour by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now."
California Governor Gavin Newsom branded it 'disgusting behaviour by the President'
| REUTERSMeanwhile, Republican Tim Scott said: "Praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it."
Amid the intense backlash, Mr Trump deleted the video just hours after sharing it.
Initially posted by a pro-Trump account on X, the video was later reposted by the President on his Truth Social platform.
The Obamas have yet to publicly comment on the video.
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