“Nothing Less Than an Apology” — U.S. Bishops Blast Trump’s Racist Obama Post
When Trump shared a video showing the Obamas as apes, outraged Catholic bishops denounced it as “viciously racist” and urged the former president to take responsibility — and apologize immediately.
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Late on Feb. 5, a surreal video appeared on Donald Trump’s social media feed: the faces of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama crudely superimposed onto apes, set against The Lion King soundtrack.
The clip was deleted by noon the next day after a storm of outrage, but not before its racist imagery — a vile trope used for centuries to dehumanize Black people — drew bipartisan condemnation.
The White House’s initial reaction was to defend the post (calling the backlash “fake outrage”) and then to deflect blame onto an unnamed staffer, while Trump himself refused to apologize. For Catholic leaders, that wasn’t the end of the matter — it was a call to action.
Among the first to respond was Bishop Daniel Garcia of Austin, who leads the U.S. bishops’ anti-racism efforts. He welcomed the fact that the “egregious” post was removed, but emphasized that every racist act is a moral failure.
Quoting a pastoral letter the bishops issued against racism, Garcia reminded Catholics: “Every racist act — every such comment, every joke, every disparaging look is a failure to acknowledge another person as a brother or sister, created in the image of God.”
His early rebuke set the tone: the Church would not stay silent.
By week’s end, two of the nation’s most senior prelates turned up the pressure. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago released a searing public statement on Feb. 9, making clear that this dehumanizing imagery has no place in civil society — let alone coming from a presidential account.
“Portraying human beings as animals — less than human — is not new,” Cupich noted, recalling how immigrant groups from the Chinese to the Irish were long depicted as sub-human to justify their mistreatment.
The fact that such a tactic surfaced in 2026 “shows that in the White House such blatant racism is not merely a practice of the past.”
Cupich directly called on Trump to apologize, saying if the president approved the post he must own up to it, and if not he must explain why his staff dismissed public outrage as fake.
Either way, the cardinal insisted, “Our shock is real. 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.
Archbishop Edward Weisenburger of Detroit echoed that demand. He said it was “very disturbing that anyone, much less the President should see racist memes as humorous or appropriate” and called the video “deeply offensive,” to be “condemned in the strongest terms.”
He joined his voice to the many seeking a public apology with full acceptance of responsibility from Trump. Weisenburger bristled at the White House’s flippant attitude, and urged Americans to use this incident as a mirror for conscience: racism, he warned, is still “prevalent in our society” and must be actively resisted.
“As Catholics, we believe every person is made in the image of God. We must recommit ourselves to counteracting the wounds caused by the evil of racism, as truly we are called to be one human family,” the archbishop wrote.
In other words, rejecting racist behavior is not “politics” — it’s basic Christianity and human decency.
Not only bishops, but Catholic lay organizations added their voices. The Ancient Order of Hibernians — the oldest Irish Catholic fraternity in the U.S. — issued a blistering statement recalling how 19th-century cartoonists routinely caricatured Irish immigrants as ape-like beasts.
Having endured that dehumanization in the past, Irish Catholics recognize the Trump post for what it is.
The AOH “condemns in the strongest possible terms the racist depiction” of the Obamas, calling it “morally bankrupt and historically ignorant” to dismiss the uproar as overreaction. “There is nothing lighthearted about reducing any people to apes… It is not humor; it is bigotry,” the group declared.
They also stressed that leadership requires accountability: whether or not Trump personally hit “post,” “the president bears responsibility” for what appears on his account. In short, silence or deflection from the commander-in-chief would only compound the harm.
Underlying this united Catholic response is a long-held teaching: racism is a sin — an affront to the God-given dignity of every person. The Catholic Church in America has made strides to combat racism internally (from parishes to schools), and it speaks from experience.
In fact, Catholicism is the most ethnically diverse faith community in the country and the world. U.S. Catholics lead all Christian faiths in the percentage of racially diverse congregations, a direct result of being a global Church with members from every race and nation.
This diversity is a point of pride and a source of moral responsibility: when any group is denigrated, the whole Church family is wounded. Bishop Garland (and his fellow bishops) have emphasized that fighting racism is about upholding the fundamental truth that we are all brothers and sisters in one human family. No political expediency can justify betraying that truth.
The Vatican has taken note. Pope Leo XIV’s own news outlet prominently covered Cardinal Cupich’s intervention, signaling how seriously Rome takes this issue.
For Pope Leo — the first American pontiff — the fight against racism hits close to home. Just last summer, renowned historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. presented Leo with a detailed family genealogy, confirming that the pope’s lineage includes African American ancestors who endured slavery.
Leo’s public embrace of his mixed Black and European heritage sent a powerful message of solidarity. It underscores that the Catholic Church stands with those who have suffered racism, and that the pope himself is not an outsider to America’s story of race.
In light of that, it’s no surprise that Leo’s Vatican is amplifying the U.S. bishops’ call for justice here.
The Church’s message to Mr. Trump is crystal clear. Taking down the offensive video was necessary, but it’s not sufficient.
Genuine contrition and a public apology are in order — not just to make amends to the Obamas and Black Americans, but to reaffirm a basic standard of decency in our national life.
In a nation still scarred by racial division, the Catholic bishops are reminding all leaders that debasing any group of human beings is morally unacceptable. And they are reminding the faithful that defending the dignity of our brothers and sisters is not optional.
As Cardinal Cupich put it, this kind of cruelty belongs on history’s ash heap, and it’s the Church’s duty to say so. The hope is that, even now, Donald Trump will heed that moral wake-up call, take responsibility, and help turn a shameful episode into an opportunity for repentance and healing.
On behalf of the millions of American Catholics fighting every day for the dignity of our sisters and brothers of every race, ethnicity, religion, and way of life, Letters from Leo stands ready to labor shoulder to shoulder with anyone of conscience willing to defend human dignity and tell the truth about this moment in our country.
Deal us in.
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There will never be an apology nor any corrective actions taken on this and all future hate speech from this administration.
Thanks to this Substack and to Pope Leo and Pope Francis, my opinion of the Roman Catholic Church is rising. Once upon a time, when I was in high school, I attended folk masses in Catholic churches with Catholic friends. Lapsed Episcopalian though I was by that time, I loved them. The energy! The music! The politics! Shortly thereafter I started college at Jesuit-run Georgetown University. Talk about total immersion. Around 80% of my classmates had been raised Catholic. Many had gone to Catholic schools. Many of them had turned away from the religion they were raised with -- and watching the "Jebbies" in action, I totally got it.
At the same time, I was much inspired in those days by some people who were moved to activism by their Catholicism: the brothers Berrigan for starters, and Dorothy Day, but several who were known only locally or not at all. So I'm much inspired by the response of Catholic bishops in the U.S. to the administration abuses in Minneapolis and elsewhere, and like others I choke on the fact that the U.S. vice president identifies as Catholic.