I Condemned Trump Over the Gorilla Video — Then I Found Out What Actually Happened

I Condemned Trump Over the Gorilla Video — Then I Found Out What Actually Happened How a Pastor, a Viral Clip, and a Media Machine Turned Truth into a Weapon PROFESSOR TOTO FEB 10, 2026 ∙ PAID Before I go any further today, I need to address something directly, clearly, and publicly — because truth does not fear daylight, and integrity does not hide behind silence. Subscribed I Responded — Publicly, Immediately, and As a Pastor Many of you saw the viral clip circulating across every platform — the one claiming President Trump posted a video depicting the Obamas as gorillas. And I want to start here. Not with spin. Not with excuses. I want to start with my own response — because I responded publicly, and I responded immediately, as a pastor and as a man under authority. On Facebook — timestamped, visible, still there — I condemned what I believed I was seeing. I did it without hesitation, without calculation, and without checking which way the political wind was blowing. Because racism is not politics. Dehumanization is not satire. And people of color — my generation especially — carry a long, painful history of being compared to animals, monkeys, and gorillas. That imagery is evil. It has always been evil. And if that clip had been what it appeared to be in isolation? I would condemn it again tomorrow. Full stop. But let me tell you what I won’t do. I refuse to let the media use my moral convictions as a weapon against a President I honor. And in this case, they nearly did. I honor President Trump. I stand with truth. And above all, I serve Yahweh. Those three things are not in conflict — unless you let the media put them in conflict for you. What I Learned After the Outrage ClearedHere’s the part that matters — and the part that cost me something. After my post, I slowed down. I asked questions. I demanded primary sources. And what I discovered is something I’ve now witnessed over and over in the last decade of American media — a machine designed to make good people turn on the leaders they support before the facts are even in the room. The viral clip was not a faithful representation of the full video Trump reposted. He had shared a one-minute election-themed video from another outlet. At the very end of that screen recording, a separate one to-two-second meme autoplayed — showing the Obamas as cartoon apes in a jungle “Lion King” parody. That brief, shocking tail end is what was cropped, looped, screenshotted, and weaponized across every major platform within hours. The President shared a political video. A brief meme clip sat tacked onto the end. The media made that two-second tail the whole story. Does that make the imagery any less jarring? No. Let me be unmistakably clear: no political context sanctifies dehumanization. If someone intentionally depicts another human being as an animal, that is sin — regardless of party, platform, or provocation. My concern here is not to excuse offense; it is to expose the deception wrapped around it and aimed directly at people like me — people who love this President and love righteousness. The media didn’t share that clip to protect Black dignity. They shared it to separate Trump supporters from Trump. And I almost let them. Subscribed A Pattern, Not an Accident Now here’s where this stops being about one video and starts being about a system. This is not new. This is pattern behavior. And if you’ve been paying attention for the last decade, you’ve seen the playbook before. These incidents differ in detail, but they share a single operating principle: extract the most incendiary fragment, strip it of context, and repeat it until it becomes memory Let me walk through just a few of the greatest hits: 1. Russia Collusion — Years of wall-to-wall coverage suggesting criminal conspiracy, followed by a Special Counsel report that found no criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. Years of his presidency were overshadowed by a narrative that collapsed when no conspiracy was found. 2. “Very Fine People” — The fuller transcript shows Trump explicitly stating, “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists — they should be condemned totally.” The soundbite that survived surgically removed that line. They turned a condemnation into an endorsement with one edit. 3. “Inject Bleach” — He floated a half-formed idea about disinfectant and ultraviolet light during a COVID briefing. Clumsy? Sure. But he never issued a direct instruction for Americans to “inject bleach” — a fabricated quote repeated across headlines as though it were verbatim. 4. Hunter Biden’s Laptop — Initially dismissed across media and intelligence circles as likely “Russian disinformation.” Later confirmed by multiple outlets and federal investigators to be authentic hardware containing real emails. Fifty-one intelligence officials signed their names to a narrative that framed the story as likely Russian disinformation — designed to protect one family and destroy another. 5. “Suckers and Losers” — A politically nuclear accusation built entirely on anonymous sources in a single article. Disputed by Trump. Never established on the public record in any verifiable, auditable way. But it did its damage on schedule — right before an election. 6. “Muslim Ban” — Branded universally in headlines as a “Muslim ban,” but ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court in revised form as a travel restriction policy within established presidential authority. The label outlived the legal reality. 7. “Kids in Cages” — Some of the most emotionally devastating photos that flooded the airwaves during the Trump administration were later traced back to Obama-era facilities. That context was conveniently absent from the chyrons. 8. Covington Catholic — A single freeze-frame painted a teenage boy as the aggressor. Extended footage told a very different story — and exposed how quickly a narrative can outrun the facts. That kid’s life was nearly destroyed in 24 hours. 9. Jussie Smollett — Treated as settled proof of MAGA-fueled hatred on day one. Painstakingly unwound in court as a staged hate crime. But the retraction never travels as far as the accusation. 10. The Disabled Reporter — Trump's exaggerated, arms-flailing gesture was his go-to impression of anyone he considered flustered or confused — and there are clips proving he used it long before and long after that moment, on non-disabled people. But the media froze one frame, attached it to one man's disability, and wrote the narrative in permanent ink. Folks — do you see it yet? The modern media ecosystem does not primarily investigate this President. It prosecutes him in the court of public opinion. And prosecutions don’t wait for evidence. They go looking for ammunition. That doesn’t mean every story is false. It means the pattern — the speed, the framing, the editorial instinct — consistently favors detonation over documentation. And the gorilla video was the latest round loaded into that same gun. My Confession — and My WarningNow let me say something that might surprise you. I was wrong to respond before I had all the facts. My condemnation of racism was correct. My timing was not. And I owe the President better than that. Because here’s what the enemy wanted — and nearly got. He wanted a pastor who honors Trump to publicly condemn Trump based on a two-second clip ripped from context. He wanted my credibility weaponized against the very man I support. And for about twelve hours, it worked. Outrage feels righteous. It feels like justice. But Proverbs 18:13 says, “He who answers a matter before hearing it — it is folly and shame to him.” That verse doesn’t exempt pastors. And it doesn’t exempt patriots. The enemy of truth doesn’t always lie outright. Sometimes he edits. Sometimes he truncates. Sometimes he zooms in so tight you can’t see the rest of the frame. And sometimes — listen to me — he pushes you to react so fast that you don’t even realize you’re being used as a megaphone for a lie dressed in moral clothing. They didn’t need me to abandon Trump; they just needed me to publicly hesitate — and they almost got it. The Bottom Line I will always condemn racism. I will always defend human dignity. I will always honor the President I believe Yahweh has raised up for this hour. And I will not surrender my discernment to viral outrage ever again. Because every time we react without facts, we reward the very system that keeps trying to divide us from our leaders, our convictions, and our calling. Accountability is holy. Hysteria is not. Truth doesn’t need speed; it needs light. Outrage sprints. Wisdom walks. But wisdom is the one that arrives intact. Subscribed I’m Professor Toto — a man who serves Yahweh first, honors the President, and just learned again that wisdom waits… even when the internet screams. Stay grounded. I’ll see you next time. Share