CNN’s Scott Jennings came to President Donald Trump’s defense Tuesday night by arguing that the Smithsonian should not be promoting a narrative that makes slavery the defining issue in American history.
CNN “NewsNight” host Abby Phillip opened the program with a monologue chastising Trump for his administration’s plans to review the Smithsonian museums for “woke” content.
In a Tuesday Truth Social post, the president wrote, “The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE.’ The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”
Donald J. Trump Truth Social 08.19.25 02:46 PM EST
The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of “WOKE.” The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery…
— Fan Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) August 19, 2025
Phillip responded in her opening monologue, “Donald Trump says that one of the reasons for his crackdown on Smithsonian Museums is, quote, ‘Everything discussed is how bad slavery was.’”
“But on this topic, it’s important to say objectively, slavery was indeed bad. It was evil, the nation’s original sin. And it is impossible to understand the true history of this country without fully grappling with slavery’s impact,” she added.
The CNN host said that she was surprised Trump said the quiet part out loud, that he wants “less about slavery,” including in the Smithsonian’s African American History Museum.
During the panel discussion that followed, CNN contributor Leah Wright Rigueur, political history professor at Johns Hopkins University, agreed with Phillip, saying, Trump is simply trying to “whitewash” history, because it makes him and other Americans “uncomfortable.”
Do you ever watch Scott Jennings on CNN?
Phillip asked Jennings directly, “Why is he equating talking about slavery with woke?”
He answered, “Well, look, I think — let me just start this conversation by saying that my personal view is slavery was a reprehensible institution. I agree with your words that it was our original sin. We also fought a war to eradicate it and to get over it as a country. And that was a necessary thing that happened, and a lot of people died. And we did eradicate it. And that’s a good thing.”
“I think what he’s asking is, in our museums, what defines us?” Jennings continued.
“Are we going to be defined by the worst moment or the worst institution, or the worst mistake we ever made, or are we going to be defined by what we’ve done moving forward to get over it and to become the greatest nation on the earth?” he questioned.
It’s true that slavery is one of the DARKEST chapters of American history. But it’s also true that lot of brave Americans fought a war to END it.
The question President @realDonaldTrump is asking is: Are we going to define our country based on our worst moments or our best? pic.twitter.com/sRLK2dF6yb
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) August 20, 2025
Jennings then argued that his sense is not that Trump wants any mention of slavery removed from the Smithsonian, “But that he wants to ask a very simple question, are we going to present ourselves as being exceptional or not? And I think he believes there is an effort by some to continue to try to define us from our worst moment, instead of [trying] to focus and define us based on our best moments, which started when we eradicated slavery and began to move forward as the light of the world.”
Batya Ungar-Sargon later jumped into the exchange, saying she loved Phillip’s opening, but she agrees there has been too much emphasis on woke narratives in recent years.
“So, for example, in 2010, the words ‘white supremacy’ were mentioned 75 times in The Washington Post and The New York Times,” she said.
“In 2020, the words white supremacy were mentioned 700 times in The Washington Post and The New York Times, and 2,400 times in NPR,” Ungar-Sargon added.
“So, the point I’m trying to make here is that liberals will say, well, this is a reflection of reality. But, of course, it isn’t. This is a reflection of a newfound obsession that was driven by the media. And that doesn’t reflect either the moral evil of these things or the historical accuracy.”
Starting in 2012, sociologists began picking up on a new trend: White progressives were becoming obsessed with race, slavery, and white supremacy—largely driven by the liberal media exponentially increasing its focus on these issues. Sociologists called it The Great Awokening.… pic.twitter.com/SGgAuiUGSP
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) August 20, 2025
The U.S. was way ahead of the curve in addressing slavery, which has existed in human history for millennia.
Slavery was abolished in Great Britain in 1833 — over a half-century after the founding of the United States.
Meanwhile, by 1804, all the Northern states had passed legislation ending slavery. This was the first such action taken by any government in the modern era.
So to say that slavery was America’s “original sin,” as Phillip and other panelists did, is not fair to the founding generation, who took the initial steps to end the institution inherited from their English forebears.
The Constitution specifically authorized the federal government to ban the importation of slaves in 1808, approximately 20 years from the date the document was ratified.
Congress did so in 1807, and President Thomas Jefferson signed the bill into law, allowing it to take effect on Jan. 1, 1808.
Further, the Continental Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 (the same year the Constitution was adopted), which established the laws governing the territorial land encompassing the future states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. The ordinance outlawed the introduction of slavery in the territory.
And as Jennings so eloquently pointed out, the U.S. engaged in a Civil War in the 1860s, costing over 600,000 lives, which resulted in the complete abolition of slavery on American soil.
In my book, “We Hold These Truths,” I argued that three undeniably defining moments in American history were the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War II. I titled the Revolutionary War section “Liberty Brought Forth,” the Civil War “Liberty Carried Forward,” and World War II “Liberty Passed On,” because the arc of American history is toward more freedom and justice for all.
So Trump is right: Tell the history of America, but tell it in the overall positive way it should be told. There has been no other country in the history of the world like the United States.
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