Trump’s Dow Triumph Meets Awkward Silence on Racist Video

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Trump’s refusal to address the Obama ape video exposes the fault line between economic triumphalism and moral accountability

By TRH World Desk

New Delhi, February 7, 2026 — US President Donald Trump strode into his exchange with reporters in full victory mode, drumming his favourite rhythm: numbers. Big numbers. Historic numbers. The Dow touching 50,000. Murders at a 125-year low. Gasoline dipping below $2 a gallon. Prices “way down”. Energy “way down”. The economy, he declared, possibly “the best we’ve ever had”.

On his telling, America is not just back—it is racing three years ahead of schedule.

“We’ve been in one year, so we’re three years ahead,” Trump said, framing the stock market milestone as proof of inevitability rather than contingency. The Dow’s all-time record, he reminded reporters, was something “they say couldn’t happen”, at least not until a fourth year. He got it in the first.

The president’s economic pitch was relentless and rehearsed. Inflation, once the Democrats’ sharpest attack line, has gone conspicuously quiet, he claimed, because his administration “fixed the problem they caused”. Gas prices, he said, were spotted at $1.85 a gallon during a recent Iowa trip. Affordability, once a political weapon, has vanished from the opposition’s vocabulary.

Trump also pushed hard on election reform, returning to familiar terrain: voter ID, proof of citizenship, no mail-in voting. He insisted the ideas are overwhelmingly popular—backed by “99% Republicans” and even “82% Democrats”. On the filibuster, he sounded almost gleeful. “I’d love to use the filibuster. The payback is very important.”

But then came the question he would not answer.

Reporters asked about a racist video—an ape video depicting the Obamas—shared from Trump’s own Truth Social account. Would there be an apology? Would the president condemn it?

Silence. Deflection. A swift return to markets, murders, and gasoline.

The contrast could not have been sharper. On one side, Trump as the metrics-obsessed incumbent, presenting charts as character references. On the other, Trump the culture-war figure, unwilling—or unable—to acknowledge the damage caused by content amplified under his name.

Trump’s strategy is clear: overwhelm controversy with prosperity. Keep the conversation fixed on Dow points, price drops, and crime statistics. If the economy is roaring, the thinking goes, uncomfortable questions will fade into background noise.

The Obama ape video stayed on Trump’s Truth Social account for 12 hours. This was deleted only after influential voices within the Republican termed it “racist.” The White House blamed the “racist” Obama ape video on a judgment lapse of a staffer. But the lapse lifeline of 12-hour is not yet explained by the White House.