Church leaders demand apology over offensive video depicting the Obamas
The Senior leaders of the Catholic Church in the United States have expressed deep sorrow and outrage over a racist social media post shared by President Donald Trump.
The leaders called the incident harmful, offensive, and unacceptable, regardless of intent.
The now-deleted post, shared on Trump’s Truth Social account on February 5, included a video that portrayed former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as cartoon apes.
Although Trump later condemned the racist portion of the video, he denied any intent to share offensive content and refused to issue a public apology.
In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, Bishop Daniel Garcia of Monterey, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion of Racial Justice and Reconciliation, welcomed the removal of the post but stressed the deeper moral issue at stake.
Garcia reposted an excerpt from the USCCB’s 2018 pastoral letter against racism, which states that every racist act or comment represents a failure to recognize the inherent dignity of others created in the image of God.
Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, went further, calling for an immediate and unequivocal apology from the president. In a statement issued February 9, Cupich said the post demonstrated that “blatant racism is not merely a practice of the past.”
“Whether intentional or not, the damage is real,” Cupich said. “Nothing less than a clear apology to the nation and to those demeaned is acceptable, and it must come immediately.”
Cupich also warned against the long-standing historical use of portraying people as animals, noting that such imagery has been used to justify discrimination, exclusion, and violence against immigrant and minority communities.
Detroit Archbishop Edward Weisenburger echoed similar concerns, describing the post as a “racist meme” and calling it deeply disturbing that such imagery could be viewed as acceptable political expression by anyone in public office.
He urged Americans to reflect collectively on the persistence of racism and to commit to confronting its damaging effects in society.
Religious voices beyond the episcopate also spoke . Sister Josephine Garrett of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth described the depiction as an “age-old racist trope,” noting the painful irony of the incident occurring during Black History Month.
Sister Garrett shared an image of the Obamas on social media to affirm their dignity and legacy.
Reducing any group to animals, the organization said, is not humor but a deliberate form of dehumanization used for centuries to justify oppression.
Former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have not issued any public response to the incident.