Texas Rep. Al Green Ejected from Trump’s State of the Union Over Protest Against AI-Generated Obama Video

In a dramatic turn of events during the 2026 State of the Union address, Texas Representative Al Green was removed for staging a protest against a controversial social media post by President Donald Trump. The post in question was an AI-generated video depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama in a highly offensive manner.

On February 24, as President Trump and his entourage entered the House of Representatives, Green, who is 78 years old, boldly held up a sign that read, “Black People Aren’t Apes!” This act of defiance was a direct response to a 62-second video that Trump had shared and then deleted earlier in the month. The video had depicted Barack, now 64, and Michelle Obama, 62, as apes in a jungle setting, sparking widespread outrage.

Despite efforts by Majority Leader Steven Scalise to remove the sign from view, Green stood firm, maintaining his protest. His sign, unmistakably emblazoned with bold black lettering on a white background, remained visible even as other Congress members, including fellow Texan Troy Nehis, attempted to obscure it from the cameras covering the event.

The protest coincided with President Trump’s ongoing public discourse, including a recent response to former President Obama’s statements about extraterrestrial life. Trump, aged 79, accused Obama of breaching national security by discussing classified information. In a conversation with Fox News on February 19, Trump remarked, “He’s not supposed to be doing that,” adding uncertainty about the existence of aliens.

President Donald Trump has reacted to Barack Obama‘s claim that aliens are real. Claiming his presidential predecessor overstepped national security rules, Trump, 79, told Fox News on Thursday, February 19, that Obama, 64, “gave classified information.” “He’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump added. “I don’t know if they’re real or not. I can […]

A few minutes later, Green was escorted out of the room as a chant of “U.S.A, U.S.A, U.S.A” and applause was heard.

Green told members of the media after he left the State of the Union that he would “do it again” if he were given the chance. In an X video shared by C-SPAN network, he said, “As you know, the President has depicted a former President and First Lady as apes. The behavior has been declared racist by a good many people but I don’t think the President has really received the message that it’s unacceptable. He seems to think that he can do these things with impunity.”

Green continued, “Tonight, I wanted him to have a person confront him and let him know that Black people are not apes. That Black people are not going to tolerate this kind of behavior. I don’t speak for everybody but I speak for people of good will who understand that if you tolerate this kind of behavior, you perpetuate it. I refuse to tolerate this level of hate that the President is, in fact, putting into policy.”

He added that “we must take a stand against this level of invidious discrimination” and that Green’s drive led him to intentionally make Trump “know it and see it.”

Green told the cameras that he believed his mission was successful. “Judging by the expression on his [Trump’s] face, he got the message, he saw it,” Green reflected.

A February 6 article by CNN reported that Trump “refused to apologize” for posting the AI video, “blaming a staffer for the mistake.”

Reporting on a press conference that occurred on Air Force One, the President’s official aircraft, Trump said at the time, “I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine,” referring to the section that made claims about alleged fraud in voting machines. “It was a very strong post in terms of voter fraud. Nobody knew that that was in the end. If they would have looked, they would have seen it, and probably they would have had the sense to take it down.”

Trump concluded, per the outlet, “Somebody slipped and missed a very small part … I didn’t make a mistake.”