U.S. President Donald Trump embraces Forlesia Cook, a grandmother who lost her grandson to violence, during a Black History Month reception at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 18, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Two conservative analysts on Wednesday panned President Donald Trump's latest attack on Black history during an interview on CNN.
This week, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to return a long-standing slavery exhibit to a museum in Pennsylvania after administration officials removed it last month. In the order, Judge Cynthia Rufe, who was appointed by George W. Bush, said the Trump administration was trying to "dissemble and disassemble historical truths," CNN reported.
Conservative analysts Shermichael Singleton and T.W. Arrighi reacted to the ruling on CNN's "NewsNight" with Abby Phillip.
"The Pennsylvania thing is a bit concerning to me," Singleton said. "I don'tunderstand why this would be apriority for any lower-levelcabinet person focusing onremoving exhibitions aboutslavery ... It's notnecessary. It's very divisive.We have midterms coming up. Wealready know the economy is anissue that Republicans arestruggling with. And the pointthat I'm trying to make here iswhen you've had a very diversecoalition, electorally speaking,in 2024, you're going to fragmentthat very necessarycoalition of very persuadablevoters that you need to turn outbecause some of those folks maybe, frankly, turned off by someof this."
Arrighi echoed Singleton's sentiment.
"Doubling down on that, the Obama video, his reaction to it kept the story alive for far longer than it could have been," he said. "Thebuck stops at his desk. Itshouldn't have been up. I madea mistake. It's gone. Instead,we lingered on it."