'Clean up the mess': White House staff furious with Trump admin over racist video response

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 19, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

The backlash to a video President Donald Trump's Truth Social account posted early Friday morning depicting former First Couple Barack and Michelle Obama as apes is ratcheting up, and some White House staffers are frustrated with the Trump administration's response to the outrage.

That's according to a Friday article in Semafor, which reported that several unnamed White House staffers are pushing back against their bosses over their initially dismissive response to the video (which was deleted after roughly 12 hours). Semafor's Shelby Talcott reported that one staffer said White House aides are "pretty p—— off" over the scandal.

At first, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the fallout over the video as "fake outrage," and said the video was meant to show Trump as "king of the jungle" with others in the video depicting characters from the movie "The Lion King." Now, the Trump administration is blaming the video on an unnamed "staffer" who posted the video without Trump's permission.

"You can’t attempt to clean up the mess by continuing to make it messier," one White House source told Semafor.

While the "staffer" in question remains anonymous, the administration's explanation contradicts Trump's own words about who has access to his Truth Social account. In a 2024 speech at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump told the audience that only he and top communications aide Dan Scavino have access to his account.

"You know, it started off with Dan Scavino, I said, 'Dan, how do you work this thing?' And I started dictating. I began by dictating to Dan and a couple of other people that we had, but they weren't Dan. And I dictate something, I dictate something, and all of a sudden, people started following," Trump said. "And then on occasion, like once every three years, Dan wouldn't be around because he was always here. I couldn't get rid of this guy. I call him the most powerful man in politics because he's the only one that has my number. He could say, 'I don't like you voters, I don't like you at all, I'm fed up with you, I can't stand you, and that's the end of my political career.' Dan's the only one that can do that ... He's the only one that can do it without my number, he can press it."

Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly wrote on social media that the staffer who posted the video "has to be fired." Pro-Trump pastor Mark Burns posted a lengthy statement to X on Friday, saying he urged the president to fire the staffer behind the racist video.

"The President made it clear to me that this post was made by a staffer and not by him," Burns wrote. "My recommendation to the President was direct and firm. That staffer should be fired immediately, and the President should publicly condemn this action."

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