'Fake!' Black pro-Trump comedian scrambles to cover for president’s racist Obama post
Terrance Williams, a Black comedian, MAGA influencer and loyal supporter of President Donald Trump, scrambled Friday to cover for the president’s racist social media post that included depictions of Barack and Michelle Obama as primates, and was promptly dogpiled by critics.
Early Friday morning, Trump shared a video on social media that included racist depictions of the Obamas as primates in a jungle, a post that stunned critics, media figures and onlookers alike. As a fierce defender of Trump, however, Williams falsely claimed that the outrage was manufactured, and that Trump never shared the racist clip.
“FAKE NEWS ALERT! Trump Didn’t post this monkey video of the Obamas,” Williams wrote Friday in a social media post on X. “Lying Democrats. It’s not on his page. Fake screenshot.”
Williams’ post was immediately hit with X’s crowd-sourced fact-checking service known as “Community Notes” flagging his statement as false. Williams also faced swift pushback from critics, many of whom pointed to the irony of a Black comedian defending a president for amplifying an anti-Black racist trope with roots stretching back centuries.
“Yes he did,” wrote journalist and former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, refuting Williams’ claim that Trump did not share the video in question. “He is happy to depict Black people as apes and you’re still pathetically and shamelessly willing to shill for him.”
With the evidence clear that Trump did, in fact, share the video, some critics called on Williams to make his position clear.
“Now that you know he did, will you say why you were so adamant about trying to deny it?” wrote Ron Filipkowski, the editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch. “Obviously you recognize that this isn’t cool, which is why you posted the denial. Maybe you can do a NEWS ALERT on why you wanted to deny this.”
Trump’s social media post was so shocking that some figures who frequently lavish praise on the president, such as journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon, assumed that the post must have been a mistake.
“This is gross and racist. The President should delete it and apologize,” Ungar-Sargon wrote in a social media post on X.
“The clip with the Obamas is the last 2 seconds of a minute long clip on voting machines being hacked, so maybe Trump didn't watch it til the end. Maybe he didn't even post it himself. If that's the case, he should say so.”