Maryland Governor Wes Moore is speaking out after President Donald Trump shared a video on social media promoting election conspiracy theories and depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as primates in a jungle.
The post has drawn bipartisan backlash, including criticism from Republican Senator Tim Scott, who called it racist. The White House has defended the post, while an Obama spokesperson says the former president has no response.
Moore condemned the imagery, saying Trump’s post “goes beyond a dog whistle” and called it “blatant racism,” pointing to the long history of using such imagery to demean and dehumanize Black people.
He added that the moment is about more than a single post.
“The words our leaders choose matter. The images they invoke matter,” Moore said. “It shapes how we see one another and the kind of country we are deciding to be."
