Lasun Alagbe
A video depicting former President Barrack Obama and wife Michelle as monkeys, posted by the current American leader Donald Trump, has heightened the tension that often surrounds racial issues.
The video has since been deleted but its echoes, symbolised by the now viral thumbnail of the former first citizens will linger for long, will be in focus for some time.
While Trump is tactically dissociating himself from the video, controversy still rages, with some remembering that the US is among the countries hosting the World Cup this year.
Racism is a spoiler on the field, as non-white players are sometimes made the butt of racial abuse on and outside of it.
Pundits would thus have expected a President welcoming the world soon to be wiser.
Meanwhile, early Friday morning, Trump shared two posts on his Truth Social platform alleging anomalies in the 2020 presidential election which he lost to Joe Biden.
As widely reported, Biden was Obama’s vice-president from 2009-2017.
Trump beat Hilary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, to win the presidency in 2017. He, however, lost to Biden when he ran for a second term.
According to Waldron, five key states all stopped counting votes at the same time. The states were alleged to have used election rigging softwares as vote counting machines.
“When reporting and counting resumed, a massive spike occurred that favoured Joe Biden,” Waldron said.
Trump posted the video twice.
Barack and Michelle only appeared at the end of the video as AI-generated monkey figures dancing to the tune of ‘The lion sleeps tonight’, a famous song featured in Disney’s The Lion King animated franchise, most notably performed by Timon and Pumbaa, a meerkat and a warthog.
“Disgusting behavior by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now,” a statement issued from the press office of Gavin Newsom, California governor, reads.
The video has also sparked outrage on social media, with most users accusing the president of racism.
