Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage.

Donald Trump went on a massive social media spree overnight that included posting on Truth Social an election conspiracy video that ended with a clip depicting former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys.

The racist depiction of the Obamas – the first Black president and first lady in American history – appears at the end of a one-minute video perpetuating the false and disproven claims that ballot-counting company Dominion Voting Systems helped steal the 2020 presidential election from Trump. The company in 2023 settled for $787.5m with Fox News in a landmark defamation lawsuit.

For two seconds, the video shows the smiling faces of the Obamas superimposed on monkeys bobbing to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”.

As of Friday morning, the video has been liked more than 2,500 times and reposted more than 1,100 times, as prominent Democrats decried the post.

“Disgusting behavior by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now,” said the press office of California governor Gavin Newsom, a longtime Trump critic and potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate.

“This is overt racism. Full stop. There’s no ‘misinterpretation’ and no excuse. This is who he is, who he’s always been, and why he should never be anywhere near power again,” political strategist Adam Parkhomenko posted on X.

The video was just one of more than 60 posts the president made on Truth Social over the course of three hours. In addition to repeating lies about the 2020 presidential election, Trump posted the Trump Accounts Super Bowl ad and calls to add his face to Mount Rushmore.

More to come.