What has been sold to the public as Donald Trump “sharing a racist video of the Obamas as apes” was never that — not even close.
What actually happened is obvious to anyone willing to look at the facts rather than their Twitter feed:
Trump (or someone running his Truth Social account) screen-grabbed a one-minute video about election integrity. Because Truth Social auto-queues the next video, the clip accidentally captured a second or two of an entirely different, corny AI video at the end — a “Trump as King of the Jungle” meme where multiple Democratic politicians were portrayed as animals and Trump appeared as a lion.
That’s it. A clipping error. A trivial editing mistake.
Trump did not share the “jungle” video. He did not promote it. He did not even select it.
Left-wing outlets and “Republicans Against Trump” accounts ripped out that final second, removed it from context, and lied to the world: “Trump posted a racist video of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.”
It was a contextless hoax from the first moment it was shared — and anyone claiming otherwise is either ignorant, dishonest, or malicious.
Why This Matters: A Perfect Litmus Test
This controversy is not primarily about Trump. It is about truth, integrity, and discernment — which makes this episode a near-perfect litmus test for evaluating “Christian” influencers and leaders.
Watch how people responded. Their reaction tells you who they are.
Category 1: The Liars (False Teachers Who Should Be Marked and Avoided)
These are the Russell Moore / Phil Vischer / Sho Baraka types — the evangelical progressives who know the truth and lie anyway.
They saw the evidence.
They knew it was a clipping error.
And they still pushed the narrative that Trump “shared a racist video.”
This is not a minor mistake. This is not “oops.” This is willful bearing false witness.
When someone repeatedly lies in public, refuses correction, and doubles down, Scripture gives us a category for that behavior: unrepentant sin.
These men:
- Twist language (“racism,” “Christian,” “loving your neighbor”) to smuggle in progressive ideology.
- Present themselves as “above the fray” while faithfully serving the Left’s talking points.
- Lie when it benefits their tribe.
- Refuse to repent when exposed.
This is 1 Corinthians 5 territory. This is mark and avoid territory.
Barring open, public repentance, these men should not be treated as trustworthy Christians — much less as teachers.
Category 2: The Cowards (Useful Idiots for the Left)
These are the “third-way platform pastors” who won’t tell the truth when it’s hard.
They didn’t affirm the hoax — but they also refused to expose it.
Instead, they posted vapid boilerplate:
“Racism is bad.”
“We should love everyone.”
“Let’s lower the temperature.”
Stunning. Brave. Groundbreaking.
Jack Graham is a prime example. He issued a generic condemnation of “racism” without once acknowledging that Trump did not post the video in question.
What does this signal to the Left?
It signals that all you have to do is yell “racism,” and these men will fold like a cheap suit.
They will never stand in the gap for truth if it risks reputational damage.
They are not necessarily unbelievers — but they function as useful idiots for progressive activists.
Category 3: The Careerists (John Piper Model)
John Piper’s account amplified Russell Moore with a comment like:
“One not to be so [sic] afraid of sounding “quasi-woke” that one cannot agree with Russell Moore on this.”
This was wrong — factually and morally. And it aged like milk.
Now watch what happens next, because this is the playbook of institutional Christianity:
Piper (or his team) will never repent publicly.
Instead, they will bury the controversy in a flood of safe, generic Bible verses — a social media smokescreen of truisms:
- “Jesus is Lord.”
- “Trust in Christ.”
- “God is sovereign.”
- John 3:16.
Piper’s three follow-up posts. All true. All good. And strategically used to avoid accountability.
This is how many influential Christian leaders operate:
- Make a false or reckless statement.
- Refuse to correct it.
- Flood the timeline with uncontroversial Scripture to make everyone forget.
False teachers often cloak error in a sea of truth. That’s how they disarm discernment.
Contrast this with someone like Megan Basham — who, when she got part of the story wrong, immediately said: “I was mistaken. I apologize.”
Why is that so hard for our institutional leaders?
What This Reveals About Evangelical Leadership
This episode exposes something rotten:
- False teachers lie and double down.
- Cowards refuse to stand for truth.
- Careerists avoid repentance at all costs.
Meanwhile, ordinary Christians — and independent ministries like Protestia — are regularly more honest, more courageous, and more repentant than the so-called “leaders” of evangelicalism.
That should alarm everyone.
If our “shepherds” won’t repent when they are publicly wrong, what does that say about their claim to be led by the Holy Spirit?
Final Word
Have your criticisms of Trump. Fine.
But you do not get to lie.
You do not get to manufacture racism.
You do not get to bear false witness.
You do not get to smear a man with a hoax and call it “discernment.”
This ape-video fiasco is not a trivial culture-war spat.
It is a mirror — revealing who among us loves truth, who loves their reputation, and who loves their political tribe more than Christ.
7 responses to “The Ape Video Hoax is a Litmus Test for False Teachers, Cowards, and Careerists”
Regardless, Truth Social needs to fix that little “auto-queues the next video” issue because it WILL cost Trump candidates votes in the midterms, not to mention draw more fire from democrats – which he absolutely doesn’t need. He needs to stick with his campaign promises instead of going down all these rabbit holes (like Greenland – which I agree with, but…sheeeeeeeesh…)
David, I have to respectfully disagree with you on one thing. The cowards are also continuing in sins of omission.
Cowardice and faithlessness are sins (Rev. 21:8, etc.)
It is a sin to deny justice (Isaiah 5:23, etc.)
In many instances, it can be very sinful to do and say nothing. And that too is unrepentant sin. If God tells us to do something, and we disobey by not doing what He says to do, then that is sinful.
So I would put the cowards in the very same category of 1 Cor. 5:11, 2 Tim. 3:1-5, and other such scriptures which tell us to disassociate. Cowardice is no excuse for sin. And it betrays a total lack of faith and trust in the Lord. Like the first sin, it calls God a liar. A man convinces himself that if he does what God says to do, that it will turn out badly for him. And so he says to himself, God is wrong, God’s commandments are grievous (1 John 5, etc.), and therefore that sin is good and justifiable.
In testing the spirits, these men lack any evidence of the Holy Spirit, who not only convicts of sin (including sins of omission), but gives peace and courage. In the case of many, I think they jumped on the bandwagon too quickly and just assumed that because Trump has often said and posted things he shouldn’t, and is certainly not innocent in that regard, that the allegations were true. In that case, there needs to be repentance and correction that is just as public as the offense (as Megan Basham did). Which again, the Holy Spirit, if present, would compel them to do.
That’s totally fair 👍
We don’t always need to understand why someone sins. That can very quickly turn into paralysis by analysis.
There’s simple right and wrong. And one who is indwelled by the Holy Spirit, who is truly born again, will not continue in sin (1 John 3, etc.), but will do what’s right. It’s that simple. And there are no legitimate excuses (Romans 1:20, etc.).
All we need to do is test the spirits. If one is not doing what he should, then we don’t need to be concerned with what his excuses might be, beyond the possibility that it may help him see his sin, and call him to repentance. But as it pertains to some, particularly those in ministry who are supposed to know the scripture and to understand what it means to be born again, who have continually refused to do what’s right, and themselves have a record of saying and posting things they shouldn’t (many of them far worse than Trump, in fact), they’ve had more than enough opportunities.
I’m convinced we are in the foretold falling away. And if that is true, tehn we need to understand that those described in 2 Tim. 3:1-5, who have an appearance of Godliness but deny the power of the Holy Spirit, are the very same ones described in 2 Thess. 2, who are given over to strong delusion in order to ensure they will be condemned (2 Thess. 2:12).
As for me, I’m tired of being nice. As far as I’m concerned, it’s time for our eye not to pity (Deut. 19, etc). We are far too quick to forgive and be gracious and merciful when there isn’t any repentance. And that’s not good. The end of it is ultimately the perversion of the grace of God into a license to sin. That’s how the wolves have taken over institutions of the church, because we’re all too nice and kind, don’t want to hurt feelings, don’t want to cause problems, so the red carpet is rolled out to welcome the wolves. There are many times when we need to demand repentance first, before forgiving, and one such instance is obviously when there is a blatant refusal to repent. Jesus said in Luke 17, IF a brother repents, then forgive him. He did not say forgive him whether he repents or not. Refusal to repent is very often a continuance of the sin. And it is, in many many cases, a disservice for us to forgive devoid of repentance, because on the Day of Judgment there will be no mercy or forgiveness for those who refused to repent.
It’s important to not get bogged down with over-analyzing things that are better left to the Lord to worry about. Testing the spirits is fairly easy. Is the Holy Spirit present, or is He not. Well, to know that we need to know what the Holy Spirit does, to understand the Gospel, to understand what it means to be born again. Once we understand what He does, then it’s fairly straightforward to evaluate whether or not He’s present. And we’re then far less inclined or likely to get bogged down in details, completely missing the forest for the trees.
I know the irony, in contrast to my own long posts. So I’ll try to let this be my last post on this article.
Nothing happens accidentally at the White House.
This is was calculated rage bait with perfect plausible deniability. It exposed liars and hypocrites. The enraged have been played like a fiddle.
Standard intelligence playbook. These church idiots don’t even realize that POTUS has a whole apparatus at hand and uses it against them. He needs to be sure, who his allies are.
Hey David. I think you’re cultivating within yourself a heart that will feel uncomfortable in Heaven.
You’re a human. Humans become what they focus on. If you focus on whatever is good, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — anything excellent or praiseworthy — you will become those things.
For that reason I think you’ve been staring into the cold, dark abyss too often.
This is a call for the people of God to stop believing everything they see and/or hear in the media. If you do not, you will be deceived.
None of the seven pillars of our society (ESPECIALLY the news/communications/social media) is run, staffed, or managed by people who love God or the truth. Online, nearly everyone has an agenda, messaging balance is missing, and our clicks are money in their pockets.
Whenever we are confronted with emotionally incendiary accusations, data, or information, it’s best to take a step back, do our own research, and make sure we know the truth before speaking or believing what is most likely false.
We forget sometimes that sound wisdom has two sides (Job 11:6 ERV) and sound judgment must look at both sides. (EHV) Many so-called conspiracy theories of late, have turned out to be true.