Editor's note: This story contains offensive imagery.

Washington — President Trump posted to social media late Thursday an election-conspiracy video that includes racist footage depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.

The video, which is just over a minute long, promotes false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Mr. Trump. Toward the end of the video is a roughly two-second clip that shows the Obamas' heads edited onto the bodies of primates, with the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" playing.

Mr. Trump shared the video to his Truth Social account at 11:44 p.m. Thursday.

Obama was the nation's first Black president and Michelle Obama was the first Black first lady. Mr. Trump has a history of sharing disparaging and racist memes about the Obamas. The president also amplified for years a conspiracy theory that Obama was born in Kenya and therefore ineligible to serve as president. Amid pressure to disavow the so-called "birther" claim, Mr. Trump finally said during the 2016 presidential campaign that "President Obama was born in the United States. Period."

There has been no reaction from the Obamas and so far, they have not responded to a request for comment.

White House press 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...

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