WASHINGTON — President Trump on Sunday posted a falsified image of former President Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, waving before boarding an Air Force One that had been spray-painted with graffiti.
It came months after another post by the president that showed the couple as primates in a jungle. That one was deleted after stiff, bipartisan backlash.
The latest image shows the Obamas smiling and waving at the top of stairs alongside a baby blue and white presidential plane with graffiti painted on it that included the Democrat’s campaign slogan “Yes We Can,” “Obama” and “BLM,” short for Black Lives Matter. The post also shows graffiti in Arabic on the plane that says the phrase “alhamdulillah,” which means “praise be to God” or “thank God.”
The use of graffiti is a coded message to remind people of crime and urban decay and has been used in racist messaging against Black people in the past.
Trump has a yearslong record of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas, and of using incendiary, sometimes racist, rhetoric. That includes everything from feeding the lie that Obama was not born in the United States to crude generalizations about majority-Black countries and posts that have sparked anger on his Truth Social website.
The president’s post of the Obamas as primates came in February, during the first week of Black History Month. It was removed following widespread criticism from civil rights leaders and Republican senators. Trump refused to apologize, however, and a staffer was later blamed for making the post.
This time, the presidential plane is a sensitive topic since Trump last week took his maiden voyage on a new Air Force One — a retrofitted Boeing 747-800 worth $400 million gifted by Qatar. The aircraft’s trademark light blue hull that helped Air Force One blend into the sky was replaced with Trump’s preferred color scheme: a navy-blue belly with red and gold stripes.
After giving a speech on the National Mall in Washington to mark Independence Day and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on Saturday night, Trump had no public events Sunday and spent the day at his golf club in Virginia. He’s scheduled to leave Monday for Turkey to attend a summit with NATO allies.
The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Nor did a spokesperson for the Obamas.
Sunday’s post also followed one from last month when Trump shared an doctored image of Obama’s new presidential library in Chicago so that it looked like the building had a large bag of garbage on top and was surrounded by a wasteland. “The Obama Library ten years from now will be a ‘Mecca’ for those who hate America! President DJT,” he wrote then.
Trump has frequently criticized the Obama library in public comments, and he posted the library image twice on his social media platform.
The Air Force One image was part of a series of Sunday posts Trump made on Truth Social, including a past picture that appeared to show Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni grinning and gazing upward at Trump under the words “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED.”
That, too, could touch off a new firestorm at this week’s meetings in Turkey, since Trump had suggested that Meloni asked “over and over” for a photo with him during the recent Group of Seven summit.
Trump’s comments prompted Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to cancel a subsequent, planned trip to Washington, while Meloni called Trump’s account “completely fabricated,” saying “Italy and I never beg.”
Brits heading to popular Spanish islands this summer may find themselves at the heart of anti-tourism protests, with a pressure group insisting that there will be a “historic turnout”
14:57, 09 Jun 2026Updated 16:48, 09 Jun 2026
Antitourism protests – such as those seen in 2024 and 2025 – could be bigger this summer(Image: Europa Press Canarias via Getty Images)
The news comes as sites in the Canary Islands have been daubed with anti-tourist graffiti, including reports from local news outlet Canarian Weekly of a ‘kill a tourist’ slogan being spotted in Tenerife. The graffiti was spotted by two expats hiking in Punta del Hidalgo, who then claimed they saw further disturbing graffiti during a walk to Bollullo Beach on the island’s north coast.
In a separate incident last week, five estate agents in Majorca with international names were daubed with graffiti including ‘guilty’ and ‘Guiris out!’ in an overnight attack. Guiri is a derogatory Spanish term used for tourists from Northern Europe.
Menys Turisme Més Vida announced a protest in Palma, a popular destination for Brits on the island of Majorca on July 26, which coincides with the start of the busiest school holiday season. Meanwhile there are protests planned in Menorca on June 13 with a similar anti-tourism sentiment.
In a statement on its website, the group said: “️We consider that the demands expressed during previous mobilisations have been ignored while problems such as the housing access crisis, tourist saturation, the destruction of the territory, the precariousness of living conditions and the pressure on public resources and services continue to worsen.
“Under the slogan ‘Majorca at the limit’, the call aims to once again demonstrate the strength of existing social unrest in the face of an economic model that continues to break tourism records while the living conditions of a growing part of the resident population worsen.”, it added.
The group claims that the protest has the support of 53 social , environmental, trade union, neighbourhood and cultural groups on the island, which sees nearly 13 million tourists annually, with Brits the second-largest percentage after Germany.
Majorca saw protests last June that organisers claim were attended by 30,000 people, although varying reports claim numbers from 5,000 to 8,000. This included reports of some people sitting on terraces being harassed by protestors. Another notable protest took place in Barcelona on June 15, 2025, in which smoke devices were used and tourists soaked with water pistols.
While there have been reports of a tourist slowdown in the Balearics and Canaries, anti-tourism protests do not seem to have a massive impact on visitor numbers. In April, the Canaries saw a drop in visitors of 8.3% compared to the year before, but this meant 1.2 million foreign tourists still visited the islands. It was also the first drop seen on the volcanic archipelago since the pandemic.
Over Easter, the Balearics reported a fall of nearly 20% in in-person tourist spending by card, despite an overall increase in spending across Spain as a whole, suggesting visitors were choosing to spend their money elsewhere.
Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com
Trump posts doctored photo of the Obamas and Air Force One with graffiti spray-painted on plane
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Sunday posted a falsified image of former President Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, waving before boarding an Air Force One that had been spray-painted with graffiti.
It came months after another post by the president that showed the couple as primates in a jungle. That one was deleted after stiff, bipartisan backlash.
The latest image shows the Obamas smiling and waving at the top of stairs alongside a baby blue and white presidential plane with graffiti painted on it that included the Democrat’s campaign slogan “Yes We Can,” “Obama” and “BLM,” short for Black Lives Matter. The post also shows graffiti in Arabic on the plane that says the phrase “alhamdulillah,” which means “praise be to God” or “thank God.”
The use of graffiti is a coded message to remind people of crime and urban decay and has been used in racist messaging against Black people in the past.
Trump has a yearslong record of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas, and of using incendiary, sometimes racist, rhetoric. That includes everything from feeding the lie that Obama was not born in the United States to crude generalizations about majority-Black countries and posts that have sparked anger on his Truth Social website.
The president’s post of the Obamas as primates came in February, during the first week of Black History Month. It was removed following widespread criticism from civil rights leaders and Republican senators. Trump refused to apologize, however, and a staffer was later blamed for making the post.
This time, the presidential plane is a sensitive topic since Trump last week took his maiden voyage on a new Air Force One — a retrofitted Boeing 747-800 worth $400 million gifted by Qatar. The aircraft’s trademark light blue hull that helped Air Force One blend into the sky was replaced with Trump’s preferred color scheme: a navy-blue belly with red and gold stripes.
After giving a speech on the National Mall in Washington to mark Independence Day and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on Saturday night, Trump had no public events Sunday and spent the day at his golf club in Virginia. He’s scheduled to leave Monday for Turkey to attend a summit with NATO allies.
The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Nor did a spokesperson for the Obamas.
Sunday’s post also followed one from last month when Trump shared an doctored image of Obama’s new presidential library in Chicago so that it looked like the building had a large bag of garbage on top and was surrounded by a wasteland. “The Obama Library ten years from now will be a ‘Mecca’ for those who hate America! President DJT,” he wrote then.
Trump has frequently criticized the Obama library in public comments, and he posted the library image twice on his social media platform.
The Air Force One image was part of a series of Sunday posts Trump made on Truth Social, including a past picture that appeared to show Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni grinning and gazing upward at Trump under the words “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED.”
That, too, could touch off a new firestorm at this week’s meetings in Turkey, since Trump had suggested that Meloni asked “over and over” for a photo with him during the recent Group of Seven summit.
Trump’s comments prompted Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to cancel a subsequent, planned trip to Washington, while Meloni called Trump’s account “completely fabricated,” saying “Italy and I never beg.”
Weissert writes for the Associated Press.
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Exact date of Spanish islands protests revealed as ‘kill a tourist’ graffiti spotted
Brits heading to popular Spanish islands this summer may find themselves at the heart of anti-tourism protests, with a pressure group insisting that there will be a “historic turnout”
14:57, 09 Jun 2026Updated 16:48, 09 Jun 2026
Antitourism protests – such as those seen in 2024 and 2025 – could be bigger this summer(Image: Europa Press Canarias via Getty Images)
Spain’s anti-tourism protests could escalate this summer, as pressure group Menys Turisme Més Vida (Less Tourism More Life) announced plans for a major demonstration that it expects to have a “historic turnout”.
The news comes as sites in the Canary Islands have been daubed with anti-tourist graffiti, including reports from local news outlet Canarian Weekly of a ‘kill a tourist’ slogan being spotted in Tenerife. The graffiti was spotted by two expats hiking in Punta del Hidalgo, who then claimed they saw further disturbing graffiti during a walk to Bollullo Beach on the island’s north coast.
In a separate incident last week, five estate agents in Majorca with international names were daubed with graffiti including ‘guilty’ and ‘Guiris out!’ in an overnight attack. Guiri is a derogatory Spanish term used for tourists from Northern Europe.
Menys Turisme Més Vida announced a protest in Palma, a popular destination for Brits on the island of Majorca on July 26, which coincides with the start of the busiest school holiday season. Meanwhile there are protests planned in Menorca on June 13 with a similar anti-tourism sentiment.
In a statement on its website, the group said: “️We consider that the demands expressed during previous mobilisations have been ignored while problems such as the housing access crisis, tourist saturation, the destruction of the territory, the precariousness of living conditions and the pressure on public resources and services continue to worsen.
“Under the slogan ‘Majorca at the limit’, the call aims to once again demonstrate the strength of existing social unrest in the face of an economic model that continues to break tourism records while the living conditions of a growing part of the resident population worsen.”, it added.
The group claims that the protest has the support of 53 social , environmental, trade union, neighbourhood and cultural groups on the island, which sees nearly 13 million tourists annually, with Brits the second-largest percentage after Germany.
Majorca saw protests last June that organisers claim were attended by 30,000 people, although varying reports claim numbers from 5,000 to 8,000. This included reports of some people sitting on terraces being harassed by protestors. Another notable protest took place in Barcelona on June 15, 2025, in which smoke devices were used and tourists soaked with water pistols.
While there have been reports of a tourist slowdown in the Balearics and Canaries, anti-tourism protests do not seem to have a massive impact on visitor numbers. In April, the Canaries saw a drop in visitors of 8.3% compared to the year before, but this meant 1.2 million foreign tourists still visited the islands. It was also the first drop seen on the volcanic archipelago since the pandemic.
Over Easter, the Balearics reported a fall of nearly 20% in in-person tourist spending by card, despite an overall increase in spending across Spain as a whole, suggesting visitors were choosing to spend their money elsewhere.
Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com
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