Texas Rep Al Green Tossed From Trump's SOTU for Protesting Obama AI Video

Texas Representative Al Green was ejected from the 2026 State of the Union for protesting against President Donald Trump's shared AI-generated social media video featuring Barack and Michelle Obama.

During the Tuesday, February 24, address to Congress, Green, 78, held a sign that read, "Black People Aren't Apes!" as Trump, 79, and his associates stepped inside the House of Representatives. Green's protest referred to Trump posting and subsequently deleting a 62-second clip that depicted Barack, 64, and Michelle, 62, as apes in a jungle earlier this month.

Green's sign, written in underlined black marker against a white background, remained held high despite Majority Leader Steven Scalise attempting to pull it out of sight.

Several other members of Congress, including fellow Texan Troy Nehis, also tried to block Green's sign from being filmed as part of the annual event's live TV coverage but were unsuccessful as the sign remained in sight as Trump took to the podium.

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."

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."

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This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 10:13 PM.