Abby Phillip confronts Jillian Michaels after she downplays U.S. slavery on CNN

On CNN’s “NewsNight with Abby Phillip,” things got heated as the panel discussed Trump’s issues with arts and Smithsonian exhibits. 

CNN’s late-night news program “NewsNight with Abby Phillip” was recently the scene of some fireworks as fitness trainer and media personality Jillian Michaels decided to set the record “straight” on a few things that were annoying her. As part of a discussion about the new direction of the Kennedy Center and whether or not Trump is attempting to reimagine America’s cultural identity into a whitewashed version of itself, Michaels shared her disdain for certain exhibits in the Smithsonian.

She specifically pointed out two exhibits located in the National Museum of American History that drew her ire; one exhibit is about Cubans leaving Cuba for America which she claims inaccurately implies that white people and American imperialism were the root cause, and another titled “Change Your Game,” about gender testing in sports that she feels has no place in the museum. 

Michaels asserted that the Smithsonian was trying to make all white people seem bad in their exhibits.

“You cannot tie imperialism and racism and slavery to just one race, which is pretty much what every single exhibit does,” she insisted.

When Phillip said they couldn’t litigate every exhibit she had on the paper in front of her (Michaels brought a list of all the supposedly problematic exhibits), Michaels shot back with, “Of course we don’t, because then you’re going to lose the argument, and everything is racialized just like you’re trying to do to me now!”

Phillip appeared to take a moment to process and fortunately found the words, “excuse me?” before reminding Michaels that she brought up slavery. 

here is is… https://t.co/8u6Bgu16ki— Jillian Michaels (@JillianMichaels) August 14, 2025

As expected, more pushback happened from Phillip and other panelists who pointed out that in American history, white supremacy was pretty much the root cause of slavery (and all of its tentacles since). Then Michaels decided to ensure that the panel understood that slavery wasn’t really…that prevalent. 

“Only less than 2 percent of white Americans owned slaves!” shot back Michaels, both minimizing the impact of slavery on American history and white America’s role in the institution that still impacts the lives of every American today, while also pointing out that slavery happened all over the world. She continued that she believes the framing of so many things in the Smithsonian lays the blame at the feet of white people. 

“Oh, no, no, this is all because ‘white people bad’” said Michaels, clearly taking issue with both the extent to which some exhibits (and likely the entire NMAAHC) frames Black life in America as being tied to slavery as well as other exhibits in other museums that imply white supremacy as essential to the struggle for rights of various groups as being overblown and inaccurate.

While an hour-long news show that covers many issues doesn’t have time to litigate them all, Michaels’ views are an interesting part of the conversation about how America views itself. While Michaels is sure to clarify certain stances for the sake of not being viewed in an unfavorable light (to wit, she attempted to clarify her Cuba stance afterwards on X), the fact that she felt it a safe space to downplay the significance of slavery in America and essentially try to point out that slavery wasn’t necessarily a white problem is the kind of rhetoric that has sown division in this country. 

What an interesting time to be alive in America.