Another historic moment for our 47th President! Donald Trump is not only the first President but also the first individual to rate three Ethics Dunce honors on Ethics Alarms in a single week, as well as setting a record for two in a single day, with the one coming up.
I bet you can guess what that one’s about…
The Justice Department arrested demonstrator Nekima Levy Armstrong, a lawyer, for her part in the illegal protester raid on a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, along with Don Lemon and other pro-illegal immigrant activists. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted an image of the arrest on Twitter/”X” showing Levy Armstrong dignified and composed, walking in front of a law enforcement agent. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary shared that post, but the White House posted a fake, AI-altered version of the arrest in which the lawyer appears to be sobbing. Her skin is also darker. I pasted the original photo next to the fake one above.
There is no defense for this, nor is there any spin you can put on it where this dishonest, deceptive. gallactically stupid conduct doesn’t land at the President’s feet, stinking like week-old fish. Incredibly, irresponsibly and also stupidly, White House officials defended the fake with deputy communications director Kaelan Dorr writing on X that the “memes will continue.” White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson also shared a post mocking the criticism.
Morons. Utter morons! The only ethical response possible would be to 1) take down the fake posts, 2) apologize profusely 3) fire the staffer or staffers immediately responsible and 4) for Trump, himself and at a microphone, take full responsibility while swearing never to allow anything like that again.
But he won’t do that.
It shouldn’t take a genius or a humble ethicist to explain why this episode was so harmful, but apparently nobody at the White House can figure it out, so here we go:
Ethics Alarms 
Maybe Here’s Johnny will return now.
President Trump also posted a video on Truth Social that had a brief clip depicting the Obamas as apes. I’m surprised you didn’t mention that. The video has since been taken down. I viewed the video and it was about the stolen election in 2020 but there was a very brief, almost like a subliminal cut, moment with the Obamas depicted as apes. He probably reposted the video without viewing it and wasn’t aware that content was in the clip (not defending here, just speculating).
Just posted on this!