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Donald Trump said on Friday he made the call to post a now-deleted video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, but later deflected the blame. The brief clip, shared late Thursday night on Trump's Truth Social account, appeared in a video pushing conspiracies about the 2020 election.

Speaking later to reporters on Air Force One, Trump then claimed he had only seen part of the video but then handed it off to an unidentified staffer. He said the staff member would not be fired and he would not apologise because he did not make the mistake.

In a bombshell claim, Trump's biographer, Michael Wolff, alleged his late-night Truth Social post sparked panic at the White House and what the president's aides whispered about the racist post.

"A breakdown... I spoke to people in the White House about this, and their view was-you know, actually, let me quote, 'off his meds,'" Wolff, 72, told host Joanna Coles on Inside Trump's Head on-air.

Trump, 79, was met with widespread condemnation as former chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, reportedly said the video was a death knell for Republicans' chances in the 2026 midterms.

Wolff continued, "They can acknowledge when Trump is too Trumpy, when he has gone further than they would have expected.

"And at which point they acknowledged that there is something that has probably happened, that something pushed him over the edge, which is another term they use.

He added, "He went over the edge last night."

The video was deleted 12 hours after it was posted.

The White House initially defended the clip as an "internet meme video" and told critics to "stop the fake outrage".

But after fierce backlash, including from several Republican senators, the post was removed from Trump's Truth Social account and a White House official said that a staffer had "erroneously" made the post.