February 06, 2026 09:09 AM UTC

How Much More Can Republicans Stand?

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: NBC News reports that the racist video on Donald Trump’s TruthSocial account has been taken down, and despite the administration’s initial defense is being blamed on a staffer:

While the White House initially defended the video, it was met with swift backlash — including from Republicans, who said it was “unacceptable” and “racist” and asked Trump to take it down and apologize. It was removed shortly before noon on Friday.

“A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down,” a White House official told NBC News.

Now Gabe Evans can at least admit it was bad, right?

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As the New York Times reports, and we add an apology for the imagery it is unfortunately necessary to display in this space for its news value:

President Trump late Thursday night shared a video that contained a brief clip portraying former President Barack Obama and the former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.

The clip, set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” was spliced near the end of a 62-second video that promoted conspiracy theories about anomalies in the 2020 presidential election.

The clip appeared to have been taken from a video that was shared in October by a user on X whose watermark is shown, with the caption “President Trump: King of the Jungle,” and an emoji of a lion.

After too many instances to list in this space of Donald Trump appealing to racist instinct for political advantage, this latest example depicting the Obamas as apes could be the most offensive and nakedly racist trope he has ever employed–and for a politician who has built his entire image on pushing the boundaries of law, democracy, and decency itself, that is no small statement. And it appears to be too much for Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who has taken point on explaining away Trump’s appeals to racial prejudice countless times:

Unfortunately for Sen. Scott and anyone else hoping this might finally be the moment the President blinks in his heedless quest to turn every American not loyal to him against every other American not loyal to him, the White House this morning issued this statement:

“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” [White House press secretary Karoline] Leavitt said. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

And…that is where the matter uncomfortably sits as of this writing. The Trump White House does not apologize, does not admit mistakes, and most certainly does not criticize anything posted to TruthSocial by Donald Trump. With that said, the outrage this morning in response to this image seems to be very great and not exclusive to partisan lines. Now that Karoline Leavitt has planted her official blessing on this image, it’s going to be that much harder to simply delete it and move on. In 2024, Trump did delete a video he posted that called for a “unified Reich,” but that was before the election.

Our question as the Colorado political blog of record is of course what our Republican members of Congress have to say about this precedent-setting racism from their Dear Leader. We haven’t seen a statement yet from Rep. Jeff Hurd, who is the most likely of the four to work up the nerve to condemn this immediately. As always, the biggest risk is borne by America’s Most Vulnerable Incumbent™ Rep. Gabe Evans, whose extreme reluctance to criticize Trump has already seriously damaged his re-election prospects. If Evans tries to skate out of this by hiding behind Leavitt’s ridiculous defense, it will not go over well in his swing district.

As we have so many times before, we ask again: are we witnessing the event that finally ruins Donald Trump politically?

Because if not now, the next logical question is whether anything ever will.