Pennsylvania bishop calls on Trump to ‘apologize or resign’ over racist video depicting Obamas as apes

[Episcopal News Service] Pennsylvania Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez released a Feb. 6 statement calling on President Donald Trump to apologize or resign after Trump shared a racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle.

“As you know, I am not one who issues statements based on every news item that crosses the wire. However, as a bishop and more importantly a follower of Jesus Christ, I was repulsed and sickened by the meme that was on the president’s [social media] feed depicting two children of God, who served this nation, as apes,” Gutiérrez said.

Gutiérrez’s statement adds to the growing, widespread condemnation of the 62-second video. It was uploaded to Trump’s Truth Social account late at night on Feb. 5 and promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. The end of the video showed a clip, set to The Tokens’ song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” of two apes with their faces covered by those of the Obamas, the first Black president and first lady in U.S. history.

Caricaturizing Black people as apes or primates is a racist and dehumanizing trope, deeply rooted in white-supremacist subsections of Western culture. The trope has been used to justify slavery and discrimination.

“It is a sin against the Lord. This is not just politics or someone being themselves. It is an affront to Christ,” Gutiérrez said. “Either you apologize, Mr. President, or you resign. If that doesn’t happen, Congress and Mr. Speaker [of the House Mike Johnson of Louisiana], who claims to be Christian, need to do something.”

The video was removed following bipartisan backlash.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the clip as just “an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from [Disney’s] The Lion King” in a statement before the video was deleted.

Other bishops denounced Trump’s post, including North Carolina Bishop Samuel Rodman and Assistant Bishop Jennifer Brooke-Davidson in a Feb. 7 joint statement:

“The racist post of a sitting president demands a response from all of us who live by the values and teachings of Jesus and our baptismal covenant. His refusal to take responsibility and apologize for his actions demands it even more so,” Rodman and Brooke-Davidson said. “Repentance and amendment of life are the steps the gospel calls us to take when we have violated the dignity of another person. This president has repeatedly violated that dignity.

We call on President Trump to repent, to acknowledge his responsibility, amend his indecent and indefensible behavior and demonstrate respect for the dignity of every human being or cease and desist his presidency.”