Rep. Al Green holds up sign reading ‘Black People Aren’t Apes’ at Trump’s State of the Union

The 78-year-old longtime congressman’s brief moment of protest comes after he interrupted Trump’s joint address to Congress last year.

U.S. Rep. Al Green, Democrat of Texas, protested Donald Trump’s State of the Union address by holding up a sign that called out the president’s racist social media post depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.

Green held up the sign, which read “Black People Aren’t Apes!” as Trump walked passed him into the U.S. House chamber just before delivering his primetime speech. At one point, Republican Rep. Steve Scalise tried to snatch the sign out of Green’s hand. Green continued to hold up the sign in the beginning minutes of Trump’s speech before eventually being removed by the Sergeant-at-Arms.

The 78-year-old longtime congressman’s brief moment of protest comes after he interrupted Trump’s joint address to Congress last year, shouting out in outrage. Trump ordered the congressman to be removed from the chamber and was eventually escorted out.

Green later shared that his outburst was spontaneous, triggered by the president’s discussion of having a “mandate” after his 2024 election victory. The Texas lawmaker said he shouted “no mandate to cut Medicaid,” a reference to the Republican Party’s then-proposed budget to make historic cuts to Medicaid. Those cuts were ultimately passed into law in Trump’s signature “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act.”

Green’s decision to highlight the president’s racist post of former President and First Lady Obama comes after he has repeatedly refused to apologize for it. The White House blamed the post on an unidentified staffer, though Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later seemed to contradict that notion.

Barack Obama recently addressed the personal attack on him and his wife, saying, “It’s important to recognize that the majority of the American people find this behavior deeply troubling.”

America’s first Black president added, “It is true that it gets attention, that it’s a distraction. But as I’m traveling around the country, you meet people… they still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness. And there’s this sort of clown show that’s happening in social media and on television.”

When asked last week if the unnamed staffer who the White House claims posted the racist video was fired or disciplined for the action, the president said, “No, I haven’t.”

Most recently, Trump continued his attacks on the Obamas, sharing a post that called Michelle Obama an “anti-White racist.”