Obama Laments Lack of 'Shame' in Politics Following Racist Video Shared by Trump

Former United States President Barack Obama criticized Saturday the lack of "shame" in his country's politics, responding for the first time to the publication on a social media account of Donald Trump of an image portraying him and his wife Michelle as monkeys.

The video, shared on February 5 on Trump's Truth Social account, was condemned across the American political spectrum.

Initially, the White House rejected the "faux outrage" although later attributed the publication to an aide's error and removed it.

At the end of a one-minute video promoting conspiracy theories about Trump's 2020 electoral loss to Joe Biden, the Obamas—the first Black president and first lady in U.S. history—appeared with their faces superimposed on monkey bodies for approximately one second.

When asked about the video, Obama responded, without mentioning Trump, that most Americans "find this behavior deeply troubling."

"There's a kind of circus sideshow on social media and on television, and the truth is there doesn't seem to be any shame about it among people who used to feel that there had to be a certain decorum and sense of propriety and respect for the office, right? That's been lost," he stated.

Obama predicted that this type of messaging will hurt Trump's Republicans in the midterm elections this coming November and that, "ultimately, the response will come from the American people."

Trump told reporters that he stands by the video's claims about alleged election fraud but said he had not seen the offensive images at the end.

• Like "in Dictatorships" -

Regarding the current president's policies, Obama criticized his immigration crackdown in Minnesota and condemned the conduct of immigration agents during the controversial weeks-long operation.

Obama described the behavior of federal agents—which included two fatal shootings—as the kind of conduct that "in the past we have seen in authoritarian countries and in dictatorships."

Thousands of federal agents, including those from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), carried out weeks of raids and mass detentions in what the Trump administration characterizes as targeted missions against criminals.

"The reckless behavior of federal government agents is deeply troubling and dangerous," Obama stated. However, he added that he has found hope in the communities opposing these operations.

"Not just randomly, but systematically and organized, there are citizens saying: 'This is not the country we believe in and we're going to fight, and we're going to respond with truth, with cameras, and with peaceful protests,'" he noted.

"That kind of heroic and sustained behavior in sub-zero temperatures by ordinary people is what should give us hope. As long as we have people doing that, I feel we will get through this," he assured.

The aggressive anti-immigration operation in Minnesota had sparked major protests and outrage across the country.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was affected by a partial government shutdown Saturday, as U.S. lawmakers argued over funding for the agency, which oversees much of Trump's immigration crackdown.

Democrats oppose any new DHS funding until significant changes are implemented in the way ICE carries out its operations.