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Archbishop & Cardinal Oppose Trump’s Racist Obama Post

Last updated on: February 11, 2026 at 12:58 pm   by Rebecca Hamilton

Archbishop & Cardinal Oppose Trump’s Racist Obama Post 2026-02-11T12:58:26-07:00 Rebecca Hamilton

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President Barack Obama accepts the Nobel Prize. Source: Wikimedia Commons, White House file photo, public domain

Two of America’s senior Catholic officials have called for President Trump to apologize for a racist video he posted last week. The video depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. 

Cardinal Blasé Cupich of Chicago and Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit issued independent statements saying that the harm done by Trump’s action was serious, and that the explanations Trump has given so far are “inadequate.”

The video showed Barack and Michelle Obama depicted as apes. This racist depiction of America’s first African American president was part of a video that was posted on Trump’s private Truth Social account after midnight on February 5. 

The video was primarily more of Trump’s unending lies and whining about the fact that he got beat in the 2020 election. 

I don’t think I have to explain to any American the long-standing racism behind this particular trope. 

I don’t know if I have to explain why I think Trump chose to pose this racist video during the latest partial release of the Epstein Files. But just in case somebody doesn’t “get” it, I will. 

Trump had appointed his own private attorney, Todd Blanche, as Deputy Director of what has become Trump’s private Department of “Justice.” Then, Trump’s private attorney was assigned to be in charge of the release of the Epstein Files. 

The law required the DOJ to release ALL the files months ago.  

The also law required the DOJ to ONLY redact the names of victims. 

What we got were two partial releases of the files with massive portions blacked out. It was seemed obvious just by the way it read, that the names of perpetrators were being blacked out.  As it turns out, the names of perpetrators absolutely were being blacked out. Congressmen who were given 2 hours to look at the unredacted files, say a quick search showed Trump was in the files many times more than the redacted release shows. 

Not only that, but the names of victims were left in. I’ve read comments from elected officials saying that they think the reason the names of victims were left in was to threaten any more victims who might be thinking of coming forward. 

Whatever the reason, it looked like a clear case of the Department of “justice” punishing the innocent to protect the guilty. 

In spite of all that, the incompetents who are now running the DOJ managed to leave in thousands of references to Donald Trump. As cover-ups go, it was as incompetent as the incompetents in charge of our government. 

It’s pretty clear that Trump and Epstein talked all the time. They were buddies; wrapped around each other. There’s all kinds of Trumpy smoke around the Epstein fire. 

But the damning things that were almost certainly accidentally left in were  allegations concerning Trump that victims had made to the FBI long before he ran for president in an attempt to get help.

One of the girls alleged that Donald Trump had forced her to perform oral sex on him when she was 12 years old. Another girl alleged that Trump raped her when she was 13-years-old. One girl said her uncle had trafficked her to Epstein when she was 12 and she’d been raped many times by many men, including Trump. She also said that her uncle murdered the baby she had as a result of the rapes and dumped the baby’s body in Lake Michigan and that Trump was present when this happened. 

I think Trump — who has built his whole political appeal on race baiting and misogyny — posted this video to get people upset and talking about Trump the Racist instead of Trump the Baby Raping Pedophile. 

I don’t think Trump wants us talking about allegations that he was present when a baby was murdered and its body was disposed of by tossing it in Lake Michigan. 

What is in the millions of files that the DOJ has said it will not release, ever? Is it photos? Is it videos? Is it hard proof? Is it something even worse?

I think Trump and the whole wide world knows that Trump’s base not only does not mind him being a racist, they voted for him because they like him being a racist. That goes for the hispanic and black fools who voted for Trump. They just thought he meant those other hispanics and black folk; not them. 

I also think Trump’s base hates women just as much as Trump does. They like it when he degrades and bullies women reporters. They get a kick out of it when he and JD Vance blame women for everything that’s wrong with the world. They enjoy the fact that Trump has the sexual morals of an insect. 

Misogyny and racism are Trump’s brand. And his base loves it. 

But there’s something in the Epstein Files that scares him silly. He’s fought the release of those files with everything he’s got. As bad as the things we’ve already seen are, they must be nothing compared to what they’re sitting on. 

So, yes, Trump’s video portraying the Obamas as apes was racist. It was a replay of a sick racist trope dehumanizing black people and implying that they are less than human. It was degrading, dehumanizing, disgusting. 

But Trump is disgusting. He routinely degrades and dehumanizes people. Remember how he and JD Vance treated President Zelenskyy about a year ago? Surely you’ve seen the way Trump and his regime routinely talks to reporters. 

I think Trump enjoys degrading, dehumanizing and humiliating other people and making them take it. He gets off on it. 

So it was no big reach for him to try to divert your attention from the Epstein Files by degrading the first African American President of the United States. 

Of course, Trump denies that he was the one who posted that video. His story, if you chose to believe it, is that an unknown “aide” slipped in after midnight, got Trump’s computer and posted it when Trump wasn’t looking.

True to Trumpian form, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, blamed the people who were upset about this racist attack on black people. 

“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt said.

That’s just the usual Trump doo-dah. He kicks someone in the groin, then he claims they are being hysterical, crazy and trivial when they say “Ouch!” It’s all part of the sadistic bullying. 

I’m glad to see two of our bishops speaking out about this. In situations like this, silence is consent. 

It’s like playing wackamole to address every travesty coming out of the Trump White House. But the Church cannot be silent about direct attacks on the humanity of whole groups of human beings. 

This video and its use of a long-standing racist trope that has been used for hundreds of years to dehumanize black people was an attack on every black person. The fact that it directly and deliberately degraded that first African American President of the United States makes it even more pointed. 

Trump was telling black Americans that no matter what they achieve, or what they accomplish, or who they are, they are still just black apes, less than human, and nothing to him. He was specifically saying that to President of Mrs Obama, probably because he is viciously envious of the love and respect they hold in so many people’s hearts. 

I think that’s why he’s so nuts over the Nobel Prize. Obama won the Nobel Prize. 

As for myself, I want to thank Cardinal Cupich and Archbishop Weisenburger for their courage in speaking out. They saved the Church from the ignominy of being silent. 

From CruxNow

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit each issued a statement on Monday calling on Trump to apologize and clarify, calling the harm done by his action real and saying his explanations for his behavior are inadequate.

“Our shock is real,” said Cupich. “So is our outrage. Nothing less than an unequivocal apology – to the nation and to the persons demeaned – is acceptable. And it must come immediately.”

“I join my voice to the many calling for a public apology with full acceptance of responsibility,” Weisenburger wrote, “and I also bristle at claims from the White House that the rage many of us feel is ‘fake’.”

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