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US President Donald Trump on Sunday posted a fake photo of former president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, raising their hands before boarding Air Force One that was painted with graffiti.
It comes months after some of the president’s racist comments portrayed the couple as monkeys in the jungle. That was removed after intense bipartisan backlash.
A recent photo shows the Obamas smiling and waving at the top of the stairs next to a baby blue-and-white presidential plane with an inscription that includes the Democratic Alliance campaign slogan “Yes We Can,” “Obama” and “BLM,” short for Black Lives Matter. The post also shows Arabic graffiti on the plane saying “alhamdulillah,” which means “glory be to God” or “thanks to God.”
The use of graffiti is a coded message to remind people of crime and decay in the city and has been used as racist messages against Black people in the past.
Trump has a long record of personal criticism of the Obamas and the use of incendiary, sometimes racist, propaganda. That includes everything from lying that Obama wasn’t born in the United States to lewd posts about majority-Black countries and inflammatory posts on his Public Truth website.
US President Donald Trump has sparked outrage from Democrats and Republicans after sharing a racist video depicting the Obamas as monkeys on his Truth Social platform. Trump removed the video after heavy criticism, including from those close to him.
The president’s post to decry the Obamas as sea creatures came in February, during the first week of Black History Month. It was removed following widespread criticism from civil rights leaders and Republican senators. Trump refused to apologize, however, and the staffer was later accused of making the post.
In this case, the presidential plane is a hot topic since Trump last week took his first flight on the new Air Force One – a Boeing 747-800 retrofitted worth US$400 million donated by Qatar. The airline’s trademark blue that helped Air Force One converge in the sky was replaced by Trump’s preferred color scheme: belly blue with red and gold stripes.
After giving a speech on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on Saturday night to celebrate Independence Day and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Trump held no public events on Sunday and spent the day at his golf club in Virginia. He will leave on Monday for Turkey to attend a conference with NATO allies.
The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment — and neither did a spokesman for the Obamas.
Sunday’s post also followed last month’s in which Trump shared a doctored photo of Obama’s new library in Chicago, so much so that it looked like the building had a giant garbage bag on top and was surrounded by a desert.
“The Obama Library ten years from now will be a ‘Mecca’ for those who hate America! President DJT,” he wrote at the time.
Trump has frequently criticized the Obama library in public posts, and posted a photo of the library twice on his social media.
The Air Force One photo was part of a series of posts by Trump on Sunday on Truth Social, including an earlier photo that appeared to show Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni smiling and looking up at Trump under the words “RESTORING ORDER REQUIRED.”
That, too, could set off a new storm at this week’s meetings in Turkey, as Trump suggested that Meloni asked “many times” for a photo with him at the recent G7 summit – and suggested that he begged for such a photo.
Trump’s comments prompted Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to cancel a planned trip to Washington, while Meloni called Trump’s account “totally fabricated,” saying “I and Italy never begged for it.”
