Trump sparks backlash with video targeting Obamas; White House slams ‘fake outrage’
President Donald Trump is facing intense criticism after posting a video on Truth Social that depicts former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys.
The video remained on the president's social media page for nearly eight hours after it was shared.
Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security advisor under Obama, called Trump “a stain on our history.” Numerous other public figures also condemned the post, describing the behavior as racist and unworthy of the Office of the President.
The White House dismissed the outcry, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stating the clip was taken from an online meme. She said the video portrays Trump as the “King of the Jungle” and depicts various Democrats as characters from the film “The Lion King.”
“Please stop this fake outrage and report on something that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt said.
Saigon Sentinel Analysis
The incident transcends mere social media provocation, serving instead as a case study in Donald Trump’s calculated communications playbook. The deployment of inflammatory and stigmatizing imagery is a hallmark tactic designed to achieve two strategic imperatives. Primarily, it galvanizes his core constituency, a group deeply responsive to combative rhetoric and the rejection of so-called "cancel culture." Simultaneously, it compels the mainstream media and political opposition into a reactive posture, allowing Trump to monopolize the news cycle and frame the national discourse on his own terms.
The White House’s counter-offensive—dismissing the ensuing criticism as "manufactured outrage"—is an essential component of this maneuver. By pivoting to attack the critics, the administration seeks to delegitimize the accusations and paint its detractors as hyper-sensitive hypocrites. This formula has proven remarkably resilient, maintaining base support while bypassing traditional political norms. For the Trump administration, the prevailing logic remains clear: the oxygen of publicity, even when fueled by controversy, is a far more potent asset than invisibility.
Impact on Vietnamese Americans
Within the Vietnamese-American community, events like these often reveal a significant internal rift. A portion of the diaspora—including entrepreneurs in Little Saigon, owners of phở restaurants, and those in the nail salon industry—may choose to downplay or overlook controversial language, prioritizing economic growth, remittances, or the hardline stances they favor. Conversely, another segment, particularly the younger generation, is becoming increasingly sensitive to the nuances of racial discrimination. They fear that when xenophobic rhetoric is normalized at the highest levels of leadership, it creates a more precarious environment for all minority communities, threatening the safety of Asian Americans whether they are established citizens or here on F2B, H-1B, or EB-5 visas.