Overview
- The Truth Social post, which Trump shared Sunday, showed Barack and Michelle Obama at the top of aircraft stairs next to an Air Force One fuselage altered with graffiti reading “Yes We Can,” “Obama,” “BLM,” and Arabic script saying “alhamdulillah.”
- This image continues a pattern of doctored attacks this year that included a February post portraying the Obamas as primates and an altered photo of the Obama presidential library shared last month.
- Analysts and civil rights observers said the use of graffiti and foreign script operates as a coded message that evokes crime, urban decay, and foreignness in ways tied to racist tropes about Black people.
- The Air Force One picture was one of several Sunday posts that also targeted Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and prompted pushback from Rome, with Italy’s foreign minister canceling a planned Washington trip.
- The White House and representatives for the Obamas did not immediately comment, and Trump is scheduled to travel to Turkey for a NATO summit on Monday, raising questions about the post’s diplomatic fallout.