Hours after refusing to apologize for a racist video posted on his Truth social account, President Donald Trump isn’t letting go.
He complained to allies over the weekend about Republicans denouncing a video depicting the Obama family as apes, questioning lawmakers’ loyalty and vowing consequences, sources familiar with his remarks told CNN.
Over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, the president lashed out at South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the only black Republican senator and chairman of the Senate Republican campaign arm, saying it was inappropriate for one of his senior congressional allies to call his White House racist, sources said.
“The president feels he can handle this privately,” a senior Trump administration official told CNN of Scott. “He said, ‘We’ve been working together. He doesn’t need to comment publicly.'”
One source recalled that Trump had harsher words for Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, berating her with profanity and declaring her dead to him.
Britt’s office blasted the report as “fake news” and touted her strong working relationship with the president, while the White House praised her as an “incredible ally” who the president “extremely respects.” Scott’s office declined to comment.
But the incident marked one of the Republican Party’s most serious disagreements with the president ahead of the 2026 midterm elections and reflected how moments like this can frustrate the commander-in-chief.
The White House initially defended the video last week, only to remove it nearly 12 hours after it was posted online and amid backlash from some top Republicans.
Days later, several Republican lawmakers opposed Trump in a key tariff vote, prompting him to threaten that anyone who votes against his signature economic policies will “suffer the consequences” in the primary. Late last year, Trump was forced by Republican pressure to support a vote to force the release of documents on Jeffrey Epstein — an issue he said the United States should address.
The White House argued that Trump remained the “clear leader” of the Republican Party, and press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said in a statement that he was “committed to ensuring that Republicans continue to unite against Democrats who, if given the chance, will once again destroy our country by opening borders, allowing non-citizens to vote in elections and horrific economic policies.”
Get Trump’s attention
But on Friday morning, Republican lawmakers sought to set the tone for their party with late-night posts strongly opposing Trump.
As the video first gained attention, Scott, who often speaks with the president, reached out privately, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. Unable to contact him, he went to find X.
“Pray this is false because it is the most racist thing I have ever seen in the White House. The President should remove it,” the senator wrote.
This caught Trump’s attention. He later called Scott — with whom he has a close personal relationship — and told the South Carolina Republican that he planned to have his team remove the post. Just before noon, the White House said a staffer posted the video in error and had removed it. As he flew to Mar-a-Lago that night, Trump told reporters that he had not seen the final frames of the video depicting the Obamas and blamed an unnamed staffer for posting it. “I didn’t make a mistake,” he said.
The president, as well as many of Trump’s top advisers, privately claim that Scott’s response helped the story gain national attention, sources said.
But Scott wasn’t the only one to condemn the video. Britt, who is working closely with the White House to try to fund the Department of Homeland Security, applauded last week’s removal of the post, saying it “should never have been posted in the first place and is inconsistent with who we are as a country.”
The public criticism caught the attention of far-right activist Laura Loomer, who provided Trump with a printout of the congressman’s statement, a person familiar with the matter said. Loomer, who has previously managed to anger the president with critical comments from so-called allies, posted on X that she was “compiling a list” of Republicans who had “attacked” Trump with “false accusations of racism.”
Notably, some of the senators Trump and Loomer were angry about — including Scott and Britt — were also in Palm Beach that weekend for the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s winter retreat. Trump did not meet with the group, but he did invite some — such as Sens. Eric Schmidt and Lindsey Graham, who did not criticize him in the video — to play golf with him and attend his Super Bowl party.
Britt’s office defended her support of Trump in a statement.
“This is classic fake news from CNN. Senator Britt has a 100 percent approval rating with President Trump and remains one of his strongest allies in the Senate. Just this week, Senator Britt had a great conversation with President Trump about her leadership as she works to defend our incredible ICE officers, pass the Save America Act, and advance the president’s policies to make America affordable again. Any narrative suggesting otherwise is not only misleading, but flat out false,” the statement said.
Trump says he’s not punishing anyone
While Trump has had harsh words for Republicans who have spoken out against him, he has been less critical of the unnamed staff member the White House blames for the disaster, telling reporters on Thursday that he had no plans to discipline the person.
Sources familiar with the president’s social media usage previously told CNN that the president often posts personally on Truth Social, especially late at night and early in the morning, and that he often personally retweetes others’ posts.
But some close aides, including Natalie Harp and Dan Scavino, also had access. Natalie Harp sometimes types posts at her direction from Dan Scavino, Trump’s deputy chief of staff who managed social media accounts during his first term. Happ and Scavino were spotted sitting next to the president at his Super Bowl party on Sunday. Harp also boarded Marine One with the president Friday for a trip to Fort Bragg.
“No, I didn’t [taken action against them]”,” Trump said Thursday, without naming anyone. “As you know, it’s a video about voter fraud, a pretty long video, and they have a little clip that has to do with The Lion King. The results are so good that they have been demonstrated all over the place long before launch. “
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