Trump Covers Up Monkey Business
Mr. Trump already has a history of illegally mishandling federal documents, and last week he decided to add to his lawlessness when he deleted a racist post of former President and First Lady, Barack and Michelle Obama.
At 11:44 PM on February 5th, Mr. Trump posted a video depicting former President and First Lady, Barack and Michelle Obama, as mocked-up monkeys, to his social media account on Truth Social.
Simianization
… is used to portray Black people as less than human, uncivilized, or subhuman.
There is a deeply rooted, centuries-old racist trope of associating Black people with monkeys, apes, and other primates. This euphemism has been and continues to be used to portray Black people as less than human, uncivilized, or subhuman. In fact, the trope was so culturally prominent throughout the 19th and 20th centuries that we created a specific name for it: “Simianization”. Mr. Trump's Ruth Social Post is absolutely clear-cut racism.
As a result of the post, the internet in general and many leaders in Washington in particular decried the post and advocated for Trump taking it down. Caving to pressure, the White House removed the racist post about 12 hours after first publishing it, around Noon on February 6th.
This poses a new problem, as deleting the post might be illegal.
In the past, the White House has historically claimed that Mr. Trump’s social media posts are official communication from the President. In 2017, former Press Secretary Sean Spicer said, “The President is the President of the United States, so [his social media posts are] considered official statements by the President of the United States.”; however, if Mr. Trump’s post is considered an official statement, then it logically falls under the purview of the Federal Records Act.
The Federal Records Act mandates the protection and maintenance of official records, and it was expanded in 2014 to encompass electronic records. The act criminalizes the destruction of pubic records, and Mr. Trump’s racist post is an electronic record of an official statement.
So, did Trump just commit another crime?
