President Trump’s Hateful Social Media Must Stop Now

This letter is written in outrage and deep embarrassment. The crude, racist, and degrading video President Trump chose to post about former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama is beneath the dignity of the office he holds and beneath the standards of any functioning democracy. This was not a joke. It was not harmless. It was not “free speech” exercised responsibly. It was hateful, childish, and deliberately inflammatory—and it disgraced the United States on the world stage. Once again, the President used social media not to lead, not to govern, and not to unify, but to demean, provoke, and humiliate. The result is predictable: global ridicule, domestic division, and further erosion of respect for the American presidency. The United States should be setting an example of moral leadership. Instead, we are watching our highest office turned into a punchline. The racist undertones of this post cannot be ignored. Attacking the first Black president and first Black First Lady in this manner is not accidental. It feeds directly into a long and ugly history of racial hostility that this administration has repeatedly stoked rather than condemned. Silence from Congress in the face of this behavior is complicity. To President Trump: this conduct is unpresidential, unserious, and unworthy of the power you wield. You are not an internet troll. You are the President of the United States—or at least you are supposed to act like one. To Congress: your continued failure to call this behavior what it is—reckless, racist, and damaging—signals to the nation and the world that there are no longer any guardrails. Oversight does not disappear because it is politically inconvenient. Leadership does not mean looking away. Americans are struggling with real problems: unaffordable housing, inaccessible healthcare, economic instability, and threats to democratic norms. Instead of addressing these crises, the President is posting vile content that degrades former leaders and humiliates the country. This is not governance. It is spectacle—and a dangerous one. Enough. Condemn this behavior publicly. Demand accountability. Restore a baseline of decency to the office of the presidency. History is watching. The world is watching. And the American people are watching.