U.S. Sen. Curtis and Rep. Kennedy also derided Trump’s posting a video of Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens speaks at the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
Some Utah Republicans made rare critiques of Donald Trump on Friday after the president shared a racist post depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys.
The post, which Trump shared Thursday evening on his social media platform Truth Social, was taken down Friday.
After the removal of the post, Rep. Burgess Owens, who represents Utah’s 4th Congressional District and is one of five Black Republican members of Congress, wrote on social media that he was “aware of the post” and called the imagery “wildly offensive and inappropriate.”
“[A]s a Black man, I find it especially troubling,” he said. “It never should have been shared or even created, and I’m glad it has been taken down.”
Trump reportedly blamed a “staffer” for the post.
Owens said Friday, “Reports indicate it may have been posted in error by a staff member, but regardless, we all have a responsibility to use care and good judgment with the content we produce and distribute.”
Obama was the United States’ first Black president.
U.S. Sen. John Curtis, too, said the post was “blatantly racist and inexcusable.”
“It never should have been posted or left published for so long,” Curtis wrote on social media.
Once Trump removed the video, Utah’s U.S. Rep. Mike Kennedy also said the post was “completely inappropriate and unacceptable.”
“This kind of imagery does not move the country forward,” he added. “We should learn from this and focus on the work ahead.”
A Republican state leader agreed with Curtis at a news conference Friday afternoon at the Utah Capitol.
“It was inappropriate,” said Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, who serves as the Senate majority whip. “Sometimes we fall short. I think he fell short.”
Though Utah’s Republican leaders have usually kept in lockstep with the president in recent years, the pushback on Trump’s racist post is the second time in as many weeks that Curtis and several others in the federal delegation have critiqued the administration.
After the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month, Curtis said he felt Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “undermined public trust” following the killing.
“We must have a transparent, independent investigation into the Minnesota shooting, and those responsible — no matter their title — must be held accountable,” Curtis wrote on social media last Monday.
He added that he would be working with a bipartisan group of senators to “demand real oversight and transparency,” and that he supports a push from U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, for top Trump administration immigration officials to testify, “so trust can be restored and justice served.”
U.S. Reps. Blake Moore and Celeste Maloy, who represent Utah’s 1st and 2nd Congressional districts, agreed with Curtis’s call for an investigation into the shooting by immigration enforcement officers.
