Trump posts a doctored photo portraying Obamas boarding Air Force One spray-painted with graffiti | PBS News
President Trump posted a doctored image on Truth Social Sunday depicting former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama boarding Air Force One with the aircraft spray-painted with graffiti including the phrase "Yes We Can," "Obama," "BLM," and Arabic text reading "alhamdulillah" (praise be to God). The use of graffiti as a visual device carries a long history as a coded racist message associating Black people with crime and urban decay.
This fabricated image follows Trump's February post during Black History Month depicting the Obamas as primates in a jungle setting, which was deleted after bipartisan condemnation from civil rights leaders and Republican senators. Trump refused to apologize for that post and blamed staff for its creation. The new doctored photograph represents an escalation in Trump's pattern of sustained personal attacks on the former president and first lady using incendiary and racist rhetoric.
The timing of Sunday's post is particularly inflammatory given that Trump last week took his maiden voyage on a new Air Force One, a $400 million retrofitted Boeing 747-800 gifted by Qatar, redesigned with Trump's preferred navy-blue and red and gold color scheme replacing the aircraft's historic light blue hull. Trump posted the doctored image while at his Virginia golf club after spending Saturday celebrating Independence Day and the nation's 250th anniversary at the National Mall.
The post was one of multiple Sunday messages on Truth Social including a doctored image of Obama's presidential library in Chicago depicting it as surrounded by garbage and wasteland, which Trump posted twice last month with the caption "The Obama Library ten years from now will be a 'Mecca' for those who hate America!" Trump has consistently attacked the Obama library in public remarks.
Trump's Sunday posts also included a fabricated image of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni positioned beneath him with text reading "RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED," falsely suggesting she pursued him for photographs during the recent Group of Seven summit. Meloni responded by calling Trump's account "completely fabricated," stating "Italy and I never beg," while Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani canceled a planned trip to Washington. Trump departs Monday for Turkey to attend a NATO summit with allied leaders.