Barack Obama Calls Out Trump for A.I. Ape Video, Leave My Family Out of It

Barack Obama is making it clear he's not losing sleep over that racist A.I. video President Donald Trump posted ... but he is drawing a line when it comes to his family.

In a new interview with The New Yorker, Obama addressed the controversy sparked back in February when Trump shared an A.I.-generated clip on social media depicting the former prez and wife Michelle Obama as apes -- imagery that ignited immediate backlash.

Obama’s take? He’s not taking the bait.

“I don’t take it personally,” he said ... but said there’s a boundary. “I’m always offended when my wife and kids get dragged into things, because they didn’t choose this … That’s a line that even people whose politics I deeply reject, I would expect them to care about."

"I would never talk about somebody’s family in that way.”

The clip -- posted by 45/47 on his Truth Social account and ultimately deleted -- opened with audio alleging fraud in the 2020 presidential election over a chart. The video then briefly cuts to a scene showing Barack and Michelle’s faces edited onto apes dancing in a jungle ... set to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" playing in the background.

Still, Barack says the bigger issue isn’t just one offensive video -- it’s the broader trend. He pointed to other A.I. clips he says are even more disturbing -- including ones that treat war “like a video game” and show crude imagery involving everyday people. In his view, that’s a deeper problem than political cheap shots.

And while he admits he’s fair game -- “you can feel free to pick on me, because I’m your own size,” he says -- he’s not about to make a career out of firing back. Obama says he’s deliberately steering clear of becoming a daily political commentator ... even joking that if he started going off like Jon Stewart, he’d lose his footing as a leader.