Trump Fan Stuns CNN Star With Bonkers History Take: ‘This Is Insane!’
Pro-Trump radio host Arthur Aidala stunned CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp with a take on museums rewriting history that included downplaying “the two Challengers that exploded.”
President Donald Trump has spent years defending Confederate monuments and pushing against problematic aspects of U.S. history, including widely-mocked purges of information deemed to be “DEI”-related. Most recently, he’s been leaning on Smithsonian museums to review and revise their content to reflect Trump’s views.
On Tuesday’s edition of CNN NewsNight, anchor Abby Phillip discussed the issue with a panel comprised of S.E. Cupp, Scott Jennings, Chuck Rocha, Aidala, and Congressman Maxwell Frost (D-FL).
Cupp was shocked by Aidala’s idea to relegate things like the Challenger disaster to “the left-hand corner” of exhibits, which she called “Russia-coded”:
ARTHUR AIDALA: Look, every country has horrible parts of its history. I mean, you can find me one that doesn’t and I’ll throw you a bouquet. I think what the president is looking at, and I don’t know this personally, but what are we going to highlight? Are we going to highlight that this young man who is the — probably going to win to be the mayor of the city of New York, came over here as an immigrant, and now he may be the mayor of the city of New York?
Find me another country where that happens in 2025. It is not a common thing. So are we going to highlight that part, or are we going to highlight 200 years ago what we did to Indians to take over the state of California? I’m not saying we should whitewash it —
ABBY PHILLIP: I don’t know. I guess I was just — I’m just asking like —
AIDALA: — but what are we going to show what?
PHILLIP: — why is this an either or? I mean, do you really want —
AIDALA: Because it’s what you’re going to highlight. You always highlight something.
PHILLIP: But do you really want a history in which you ignore —
AIDALA: Okay —
PHILLIP: — what happened to Native Americans in this country?
AIDALA: — let me just say one more thing. Do you want — do you want to walk into the Air and Space Museum and talk about the two Challengers that exploded? Or do you want to talk about —
REP. MAXWELL FROST: You read about it. You read about there (ph).
AIDALA: But it could be over in the left — yes. But it could be over in the left hand corner. You want to walk in and say, we were the first country to put a person on the moon. We were the first country to do this. And yes, then in the corner, you talk about the things that we screwed up. That’s the truth.
SE CUPP: This is insane! This is very Russia-coded.
FROST: Yeah.
CUPP: You know, the fires —
AIDALA: I’m not saying we’ll erase it. It’s what you highlight versus what you — I’m not saying it should disappear.
CUPP: Yeah. Another word for what you’re saying is propaganda. And —
AIDALA: So you want to talk about the Columbia blowing up. Let’s walk into the Air and Space Museum and talk about Columbia blowing up.
FROST: — so we never do it again.
AIDALA: But what about the accomplishments?
PHILLIP: Hold on, Arthur. Go ahead, S.E.
CUPP: Just let me get a thought out. One of the first things Russia did after it invaded Ukraine illegally was have the Ministry of Culture review all the museums to make sure that they were sufficiently pro-Russian exceptionalism. It took over around 40 museums in Ukraine. It turned one museum in Mariupol, Ukraine into the museum of Andrei Zhdanov, who was Stalin’s propaganda minister. This stuff happens all the time in totalitarian and authoritarian countries that want to whitewash history for the benefit of propaganda.
It’s not about highlighting, putting one thing in this corner versus that corner. It’s the difference between history and propaganda. And museums should not be in the business of propaganda.
Watch above via CNN NewsNight.
