The former US president has broken his silence over a video the White House posted that showed he and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.
Former US president Barack Obama has described a video President Donald Trump posted that showed Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, condemned by many as racist, was part of a brazen "clown show".
Obama made the comments during a wide-ranging interview with US liberal podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen on Saturday (Sunday AEDT).
The interview was Obama's first since Trump's social media account earlier this month posted and then deleted a video depicting the former president and former first lady as apes in a jungle.
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Cohen, while mentioning the video, asked Obama how the US can reverse the decline of civil discourse.
Though Obama didn't directly address Trump's post, he said, "There's this sort of clown show that's happening in social media and on television," adding that people "who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect" appear to not be showing "any shame about this".
Trump has refused to apologise for the video, blaming a staffer for the mistake and insisting he hadn't seen the final frames of the video which contained the offensive content.
"I think it's important to recognise that the majority of the American people find this behaviour deeply troubling," Obama said.
"It is true that it gets attention. It's true that it's a distraction."
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He argued that the US can restore "norms, rule of law (and) decency" by saying "enough," something he said he's now "seeing across the board".
Trump's post was widely condemned by a wide range of American politicians and civic leaders, from civil rights chiefs to veteran Republican senators, for its treatment of the nation's first Black president and first lady.
The US Senate's lone Black Republican, Tim Scott of South Carolina, called on Trump to take down the post.
"Praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House," Scott said.
Another Republican, Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, is white but represents the state with the largest percentage of Black residents.
Wicker called the post "totally unacceptable" and said the president should apologise.
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