California State Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones, R-Escondido, on Friday joined the Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, in condemning a racist post shared by President Donald Trump on social media.
The post on the president's account on the Trump-owned Truth Social site depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. It went online on Thursday night but was taken down around 12 hours later.
"That post was offensive and unacceptable. What is right and what is wrong stands, even on social media. Content like this should be condemned," Jones wrote.
The White House initially denied the offensive nature of the post.
"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, White House press secretary, said. "Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public."
However, hours later, the post had not only been deleted, but the Trump Administration was conducting damage control after an unusually vociferous bipartisan backlash was apparent.
"Praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House," wrote Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, on X. "The President should remove it."
A little before noon Friday, the White House blamed a staff member for the meme. Trump often posts outrageous statements, memes and videos to his personal Truth Social account late at night, often signing them with his initials "DJT," but others have access to the account and there is no proof the overtly racist post was personally sent by the president.
A White House staffer told CNN, "The president was not aware of that video, and was very let down by the staffer who put it out."
Other local politicians sounded off on the story.
"This is not a joke, not an accident and not politics as usual," said Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, on his social media pages. "It is racist, offensive and beneath the office of the President of the United States."
"Absolutely abhorrent. Vile. Racist. This kind of disgusting behavior has NO place in our country," wrote Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego. "Every single one of us should be condemning this clearly and publicly."
