Senior Catholic leaders in the United States have publicly condemned a social media post shared by President Donald Trump that used racist imagery to depict former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama, calling the incident a painful reminder that racism remains a present and urgent moral issue.
The controversy stems from a video Trump reposted on his Truth Social account late on Feb. 5. According to reporting by EWTN News and Crux, the video primarily repeated claims of election fraud from the 2020 presidential race, but near its end included an animated image portraying the Obamas as apes. The post remained online for several hours before being deleted.
In a statement shared on social media, Bishop Daniel Garcia, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion of Racial Justice and Reconciliation, said he was “glad to see that the egregious post has been taken down,” while reiterating language from the bishops’ 2018 pastoral letter on racism. The statement emphasized that “every racist act — every such comment, every joke, every disparaging look — is a failure to acknowledge another person as a brother or sister, created in the image of God,” according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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Calls for a direct apology quickly followed. Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, said the harm caused by the post could not be dismissed as accidental or trivial. “Our shock is real. So is our outrage,” Cupich said, according to Crux. “Nothing less than an unequivocal apology — to the nation and to the persons demeaned — is acceptable. And it must come immediately.”
Cupich also warned that portraying human beings as animals has a long and painful history in the United States. Such imagery, he said, has been used to demean immigrants and minorities and has “immunized the national conscience” in moments when the country turned away refugees, tolerated lynching, and allowed generations to fall into poverty.
Detroit Archbishop Edward Weisenburger echoed those concerns, calling the meme “deeply offensive” and inappropriate for any form of political discourse. According to EWTN News, Weisenburger said he joined those calling for “a public apology with full acceptance of responsibility,” adding that he rejected claims from the White House that public anger over the post was “fake.”
Weisenburger also urged Catholics to reflect more broadly on the persistence of racism. “Beyond the necessary apology,” he said, “we all must examine our conscience, individually and collectively,” emphasizing the Church’s belief that every person is made in the image and likeness of God.
Other Catholic voices also spoke out. Sister Josephine Garrett of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth described the depiction as an “age-old racist trope,” while the Ancient Order of Hibernians noted that similar imagery had historically been used to dehumanize Irish Americans. The organization said that dismissing the video as a mere internet meme was “morally bankrupt and historically ignorant,” according to EWTN News.
When questioned by reporters, Trump said he had not seen the full video before reposting it and stated that he condemned the racist imagery. However, he declined to apologize, saying, “I didn’t make a mistake,” according to both outlets. White House officials initially defended the post before later attributing it to a staff error.
The Obamas have not publicly commented on the incident.
For Catholic leaders, the episode has become more than a political controversy. As Cupich noted, it has exposed how easily old wounds can be reopened and how urgently the Church must continue to proclaim the Gospel truth that every human person possesses inherent dignity, regardless of race or background.
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