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  • After Trump shared a racist video about the Obamas, Pa. lawmakers of both parties condemn the post: ‘Absolutely unacceptable.’

    After Trump shared a racist video about the Obamas, Pa. lawmakers of both parties condemn the post: ‘Absolutely unacceptable.’

    U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Bucks) called on President Donald Trump to apologize for sharing a racist video Thursday night on Truth Social that depicts former President Barack Obama, the country’s first Black president, and former first lady Michelle Obama, as apes.

    “Whether intentional or careless, this post is a grave failure of judgment and is absolutely unacceptable from anyone — most especially from the President of the United States. A clear and unequivocal apology is owed,” Fitzpatrick wrote in a post on X Friday afternoon.

    The Bucks County Republican, who will be defending a key swing district this fall, joined a bipartisan ensemble of lawmakers who are condemning Trump’s post, which was deleted Friday after the widespread backlash.

    The president has a long history of promoting inflammatory content online and making racist remarks. This post also comes in the wake of his administration’s decision to remove exhibits about slavery and other injustices from Independence National Historic Park and other national parks.

    “Donald Trump is a bigoted, small-minded man who has long spewed racist remarks and tried to whitewash our nation’s history. Today he finds a new low,” said U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Philadelphia), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, in a post on X. “His recent post is vile, disgusting, and abhorrently racist. Every elected official should speak up and condemn this hate.”

    Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) in a statement to The Inquirer, called the president’s post “indefensible and horrendous.”

    “That garbage came from, and should forever remain in, the twisted and grotesque corners of the internet,” he said.

    Fitzpatrick, a moderate representing a purple county, has disagreed with Trump before but the lawmaker’s comments Friday serve as one of his strongest rebukes yet.

    “Racism and hatred have no place in our country — ever. They divide our people and weaken the foundations of our democracy,“ Fitzpatrick wrote. “History leaves no doubt: when division is inflamed by those in positions of power, the consequences are real and lasting.”

    The White House blamed a staffer for the video, which was posted just five days into Black History Month, The Associated Press reported. This came after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said there was “fake outrage” over the post and that it was a meme inspired by The Lion King.

    In addition to the Obamas, other Democratic leaders, including former President Joe Biden, were depicted as various animals in the video, which was set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and features Trump as the “King of the Jungle.” The clip of the Obamas appears to have originally come from a conservative user on X, The New York Times reported.

    In addition to the election officials reacting with horror, Rt. Rev. Daniel G.P. Gutiérrez, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese in Pennsylvania, said that he was “repulsed and sickened” by Trump’s post and called on the president to resign.

    U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick (R., Pa) condemned the video late Friday afternoon after the White House had blamed it on a staffer.

    “Posting this video is unacceptable and thankfully it has been taken down. It should never have been posted and does not represent who we are as a nation. Racism has no place in America,” McCormick said in a post on X.

    Other Republican senators moved faster to publicly condemn Trump’s post.

    U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.), the only Black Republican in the U.S. Senate, said Friday morning, “It’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”

    Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro pointed to Scott’s comments when asked about the video during a stop in Philadelphia Friday.

    “I actually agree with [Republican] Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina that it’s racist,” Shapiro said.

    Fitzpatrick has in the past avoided calling out Trump directly.

    The Republican was the only member of his party’s delegation in Pennsylvania to vote against Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act on final passage, though he moved the legislation forward with an earlier vote. Trump called Fitzpatrick disloyal in response.

    Fitzpatrick also recently voted to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies alongside Democrats and two other swing-district Republicans.

    Fitzpatrick’s seat is one of four in Pennsylvania that is being targeted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, but he entered 2026 with significantly more campaign cash than any of his Democratic challengers.

    The Bucks County lawmaker remains the only Republican in Pennsylvania’s U.S. House delegation that has yet to receive an endorsement from Trump.

    Staff Writer Alfred Lubrano contributed to this reporting.

  • Trump’s racist Truth Social post about the Obamas is meant to demean us all

    Trump’s racist Truth Social post about the Obamas is meant to demean us all

    When Donald Trump posted a meme on his social media platform that portrayed former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as apes, it was an act of racism.

    Trump engaging in this behavior during Black History Month is no accident. His childish attempt to taint the legacy of America’s most accomplished Black couple is about more than insulting the Obamas. It is meant to demean all of us.

    After all, if a Black president is nothing more than a monkey, a Black doctor, lawyer, or executive is even less than that. Therefore, in the minds of those who embrace that kind of racist reasoning, Black history should not be celebrated. It should be mocked, undermined, and erased.

    The fraught politics behind the creation of Black History Month | Solomon Jones

    That’s why we can’t ignore the timing of Trump’s decision to pry Black history from the walls at the President’s House slavery memorial at Sixth and Market.

    We must not downplay his sudden fixation with controlling the voting apparatus in cities like Philadelphia with large Black populations.

    We cannot pretend that portraying the Obamas as monkeys is isolated from his ongoing attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

    Trump has chosen to use the 100th anniversary of Black History Month to send a message: It is now open season on Black people.

    The White House, through a statement from press secretary Karoline Leavitt, initially sought to downplay the president’s social media post. “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King,” Leavitt said. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

    Historical interpreter Michael Carver speaks with visitors at the President’s House site on Independence Mall on Jan. 25 — two days after displays about slavery were removed.

    But here’s the thing. The president’s racist post does matter to the American public, as evidenced by the immediate backlash from major figures on both sides of the aisle. Even Black Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, who normally declines to criticize the president’s racial broadsides, responded.

    “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it,” Scott wrote on social media.

    Scott, who chairs the Senate Republicans’ midterm campaign arm, is right to pray, because with each outrageous act by the president, Republican odds in the upcoming elections get a little longer.

    But Trump’s overtly racist post was never about the elections. It was about reshaping the society in which we live.

    Though Trump deleted the post after Americans reacted with outrage, the message was sent. Black people are the enemy, and they are to be treated as such.

    Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.), here speaking at a Trump campaign rally in February 2020, called the president’s post “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”

    As if to underline that point, a white listener called my radio show on Friday morning and called me the N-word on the air. I was neither surprised nor angry. Rather, I experienced a moment of great clarity. America should, too.

    Trump is inviting the white conservatives who comprise much of his political base to follow his lead and embrace racism. He is reaching back for vile racist tropes to get them to do so.

    In some ways, I’m grateful Trump waited until Black History Month to do this. History, after all, is a strong and determined teacher. We must strive to be the kind of students who embrace history’s lessons.

    In 1906, for example, the determination to portray Black people as monkeys took an unimaginably cruel turn. A young African named Ota Benga, who had been taken from what was then the Belgian Congo, was placed in a cage at the Bronx Zoo with actual monkeys. Historians speculate he may have been 12 or 13 — caged with monkeys so crowds of white people could gawk at him, laugh at him, demean and humiliate him.

    Benga was freed when outraged Black ministers and others complained about his treatment. Ten years later, Benga killed himself, and the Wildlife Conservation Society, which oversees the Bronx Zoo, spent nearly a century trying to cover up what was done to him. It was only after the murder of George Floyd that the organization fully acknowledged and apologized for the incident.

    History teaches us that when racism is left unchecked and unchallenged, people die.

    This Black History Month, as Trump seeks to take us backward, he must know that we will not go quietly.

    In fact, we will not go at all.

  • Penn State hockey star Gavin McKenna has aggravated assault charge dropped

    Penn State hockey star Gavin McKenna has aggravated assault charge dropped

    Penn State hockey star Gavin McKenna remains in hot water after allegedly assaulting a 21-year-old male last weekend in State College. But the temperature cooled a bit on Friday after prosecutors dropped the felony aggravated assault charge against McKenna, the projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NHL draft.

    The decision comes two days after McKenna, 18, was charged with aggravated assault and three other related crimes for allegedly punching a man outside of a parking garage in the 100 block of South Pugh Street in State College. The altercation came hours after McKenna had played and tallied a goal and two assists in No. 6 Penn State’s 5-4 overtime loss to No. 2 Michigan State in the first-ever outdoor hockey game at Beaver Stadium.

    Penn State’s Gavin McKenna, a top 2026 NHL draft prospect, charged with assault

    “In order to establish probable cause for the crime of Aggravated Assault, the Commonwealth must establish that a person acted with the intent to cause serious bodily injury or acted recklessly under circumstances showing an extreme indifference to the value of human life,“ read Friday’s statement from the Centre County District Attorney’s Office.

    ”Both the District Attorney’s Office and the State College Police Department have reviewed video evidence of this incident and do not believe that a charge of Aggravated Assault is supported by the evidence. Accordingly, the District Attorney’s Office will be withdrawing the felony count of Aggravated Assault and correcting the record regarding the injuries suffered by the victim. A review of the video does not support a conclusion that Gavin McKenna acted with the intent to cause serious bodily injury or with reckless indifference to the value of human life.”

    According to State College Police, McKenna allegedly punched a man in the face twice Saturday night, resulting in a fractured jaw that required corrective surgery. The altercation came after an exchange of words between the victim and his friends and McKenna. Friday’s statement clarified that the man did not lose a tooth as previously reported and confirmed that the victim is recovering from surgery.

    Penn State freshman Gavin McKenna in in the top 20 in the nation in scoring with 32 points.

    While the aggravated assault charge was the most severe charge that McKenna faced, and carried a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, he is still facing a misdemeanor charge of simple assault, as well as charges of harassment and disorderly conduct for fighting. The simple assault charge carries a maximum of two years in prison, while fines are attached to the three remaining charges.

    McKenna, who was released on $20,000 unsecure bail, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 11 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa.

    Penn State’s Gavin McKenna is once again stating his case to be the No. 1 overall pick

    Penn State sent the following statement to The Inquirer after the charges were filed on Wednesday: “We are aware that charges have been filed; however, as this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not have any further comment.”

    The Inquirer also attempted to reach out to McKenna’s adviser, Pat Brisson of CAA, but has yet to receive a response.

    McKenna, a native of Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, is ranked No. 1 on the NHL’s 2026 Central Scouting list among North American skaters. The Penn State freshman, who was considered one of the biggest college hockey recruits ever, has 11 goals and 32 points in 24 games this season for the Nittany Lions. McKenna’s playing status is currently unknown, with Penn State’s next game scheduled for Feb. 13 at Michigan.

  • American Airlines announces a new European route out of PHL

    American Airlines announces a new European route out of PHL

    American Airlines is planning a new route to Porto, Portugal, from Philadelphia.

    The route is expected to become available in summer 2027, pending government approval, the airline noted in a news release Thursday.

    The flight will be offered on a new aircraft — the Airbus A321XLR — that American just began operating in December. According to PHL chief commercial officer Kate Sullivan, having that aircraft is key to the new route availability. The aircraft will feature “Flagship Suite” seats, which were recently introduced on some PHL flights.

    “Not only is seeing a summer 2027 route announced so early exceptional, the A321XLR will enable American to serve markets like Porto that have strong demand but may not support daily flights from wide-body aircraft,” Sullivan said. “Porto is just the beginning of what this aircraft will unlock for our region’s residents and visitors.”

    This will be the first time that Porto is offered as a direct route out of PHL, airport spokesperson Heather Redfern confirmed Friday. Sullivan said the addition is “outstanding news for PHL.”

    “Porto is exactly the type of new market the Airbus A321XLR enables us to serve,” Brian Znotins, a senior vice president at the airline, said this week at a conference.

    American has recently added several other direct flights from PHL to Europe. In 2024, the airline launched routes connecting Philadelphia to Copenhagen, Denmark; Nice, France; and Naples, Italy.

    The airline also launched a bus service in 2022 to shuttle passengers from airports in the region to PHL to take a flight. And it opened new lounges at PHL last year, featuring two bars, private phone rooms, and showers.

    American was among the top 10 largest employers in Philadelphia in 2025 and is the largest airline by passenger volume operating out of PHL. In 2024, the airline carried nearly 20 million passengers through the airport.

  • Downingtown dog involved in 4 attacks is euthanized

    A Downingtown dog has been euthanized after it injured multiple people in recent months and made residents feel unsafe, officials said.

    The decision, made the day of a Thursday hearing in district court, stems from a November incident in which the dog bit a child in a neighboring house on the 500 block of Thomas Road.

    Whitley Coggins said her sons, ages 4 and 8, had been playing in the backyard when the neighbor’s dogs were let outside. One mixed-breed dog got through the fence, attacking her youngest son, she said. The boy was bitten on his upper arm and required stitches.

    There are four dogs that had been known to neighbors for aggressive behavior, she said. Though the Coggins family had never personally experienced it until November, the mother said, she warned her sons to run back inside if they ever saw the dogs in the yard.

    After the hearing and the owner’s decision to euthanize, Coggins said she was frustrated that the only positive was that one of the dogs was removed from the house.

    “I feel like I’m supposed to feel like something was done, I’m supposed to feel good that the one dog that attacked my child is gone, and I do feel a small sense of replaced safety or something — that that one dog is not there,” she said. “But that one dog has never been the problem, not the whole problem.”

    Coggins said her sons still feel unsafe leaving the house and are fearful of dogs.

    “Following our time in court, we still had to return — and the rest of the neighbors had to return — to a neighborhood with three dogs who have registered attacks on other people and other animals, and because of the laws and the way the laws are written or interpreted, there is nothing to go forward with to remove these dogs,” Coggins said.

    Reached by phone, the attorney for the dog owner declined comment.

    Brendan Brazunas, Downingtown’s chief of police, said the owner’s defense counsel immediately suggested euthanasia given the seriousness of the 4-year-old’s injury, and the fact that this was the fourth documented bite involving this dog since 2023.

    “The dog that created the most issues at that house is this dog that was euthanized,” Brazunas said. “Obviously, the community is very concerned and they’re afraid, and I think this was the first step with regards to dogs at that house.”

    Brandywine Valley SPCA, which had assisted the Downingtown police in the case, transported and euthanized the dog, a spokesperson for the organization said.

    “This was a tragic situation that never should have escalated to this point,” Erica Deuso, mayor of Downingtown, said in a statement. “I love animals, and I am heartbroken any time a dog loses its life, but public safety comes first.”

    The charges were dropped, as they can only be made for live dogs, Brazunas said. But there are ongoing cases facing the owner’s other dogs.

    A Jan. 20 incident was reported to police when the dogs escaped through an open door and injured an adult man, a tow-truck driver who was returning a vehicle. That case will be heard in the coming weeks.

    The SPCA has six outstanding charges for other dogs in the owner’s home regarding rabies vaccinations, dog licenses, and the dogs getting loose, the spokesperson said.

  • Capping the Vine Street Expressway to reunite Chinatown could progress despite the loss of federal money

    Capping the Vine Street Expressway to reunite Chinatown could progress despite the loss of federal money

    The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission is working to help keep alive the city’s project to cap the Vine Street Expressway after Washington last year yanked $150 million in promised federal money.

    The project was dependent on a $159 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant covering the entire cost.

    But only $8.4 million was committed before the Republican policy-and-budget legislation called the Big Beautiful Bill, enacted in July 2025, killed most of the Neighborhood Access and Equity grant program, and the rest of the promised money disappeared.

    Now, DVRPC, at the city’s request, is managing the process of gathering $12.5 million to replace some of the lost money, enough to complete the final design.

    “We are taking this administrative action to keep the project moving,” DVRPC spokesperson Elise Turner said.

    The Chinatown project involves building a cap over I-676 from just east of 10th to 13th Streets, allowing for a park as well as more developable land. It would tie together Chinatown and the neighborhood to the north, which were united until the interstate split them.

    Finishing the design will advance the project as officials look for construction funding. It’s possible building the cap will be delayed.

    For the design work, $10 million would be obtained from another federal program for improvements on the national highway network. That money is available in the region’s reserve controlled by PennDot, DVRPC staff said.

    The city would contribute $2.5 million.

    The city’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems is working to secure the money and is “confident” that will happen, a spokesperson said, while declining to disclose details.

    As for construction, “funding will have to be figured out later,” said DVRPC’s Turner.

    The agency determines priorities for regional transportation projects.

    To receive federal funds, an infrastructure project needs the formal blessing of the DVRPC, the designated metropolitan planning organization for the Philadelphia region.

    Meanwhile, preliminary engineering work is continuing, financed by the $8.4 million. The project is expected to receive environmental approvals in the spring, DVRPC said.

    President Donald Trump and the GOP congressional majorities have been targeting Biden-era initiatives for elimination, including various transportation-equity programs — to fund projects like the Stitch — that began under the national infrastructure act of 2022.

    In late 2023, construction of the cap was projected to begin in 2027, although at other points a groundbreaking was anticipated in 2028.

    The timeline is currently unclear.

    This story has been updated to clarify DVRPC’s role in the project.

  • NBA trade deadline grades: No top marks for Sixers after Jared McCain and Eric Gordon deals

    NBA trade deadline grades: No top marks for Sixers after Jared McCain and Eric Gordon deals

    The NBA trade deadline produced a frenzy of deals around the league, but the dust has finally settled. The 76ers were one of the least active teams at the deadline, only making two trades before 3 p.m. on Thursday. However, one of those trades garnered plenty of reaction.

    Guard Jared McCain won Sixers fans over as a rookie in 2024-25 as he was a rare bright spot in an otherwise trying season. The 16th overall pick out of Duke averaged 15.3 points across 23 contests before a torn meniscus in his right knee ended his season.

    McCain struggled to find his footing this season. He missed the first six games and made his season debut against the Chicago Bulls on Nov. 4, where he missed all four of his shots. However, he did show flashes of his rookie self, including scoring 17 points on 6 of 8 shooting against the Milwaukee Bucks on Jan. 27.

    The Sixers trading Jared McCain will either be a head-scratcher or an embarrassment

    But with the Sixers searching for roster flexibility and a way to duck under the luxury tax, they decided to trade McCain to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for the Houston Rockets’ 2026 first-round pick and three second-round picks.

    The Sixers also moved on from guard Eric Gordon, who played in just six games, along with a 2032 second-round pick swap to the Memphis Grizzlies.

    The trades cleared a roster spot for Dominick Barlow’s two-way contract to be converted to a standard contract.

    Here are how some of the national media outlets are grading the Sixers’ moves.

    ESPN: B+/B

    ESPN gave the Sixers a B+ for the McCain trade as they accomplished multiple logistical goals with the move. The trade got the the team below the luxury tax line, cleared a roster spot to convert Barlow’s contract, and gave them future flexibility to re-sign guard Quentin Grimes. The Thunder received the same grade on their end of the deal.

    “After adding VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes to All-Star Tyrese Maxey in the past year, Philadelphia’s roster got crowded, part of the reason McCain hasn’t played many minutes this season,” wrote Kevin Pelton. “Turning McCain into draft picks not only gets Philadelphia below the luxury tax line but probably makes it easier to make additional deals, whether before Thursday’s trade deadline or this offseason.”

    Tyrese Maxey (0) walks up the court against the Los Angeles Clippers on Feb. 2.

    ESPN graded the Gordon move as a B, as he had not made much of an impact on the court this year. The veteran has not played since Christmas and has played 74 total minutes this season. The Sixers now have three open roster spots after the trade, giving them plenty of room to convert two-way deals or sign a free agent.

    The Athletic: B

    Zach Harper of The Athletic was much more fond of the McCain trade from the Thunder’s point of view as opposed to the Sixers. He gave the Sixers a B for moving on from McCain in year two while Oklahoma City got an A for adding a potentially valuable bench player with two and a half years of control.

    The Sixers got under the tax and took a small step back at the NBA trade deadline

    “The good news is the Sixers are good now, so they didn’t need him nearly as much to play well. If he can’t be the player we saw in his rookie season, then that Houston pick should be pretty easy to use to replace him,” Harper wrote. “If he can be that player again, then Philadelphia doing this to not pay the luxury tax in a decent season makes nailing that Houston pick pretty big.”

    Yahoo! Sports: B-

    Morton Stig Jensen of Yahoo! Sports was critical of general manager Daryl Morey’s decision to trade McCain and praised Thunder general manager Sam Presti. Jensen gave the Sixers a B- for getting below the luxury tax, but described it as a “pity grade.” He gave Oklahoma City an A+ for filling its need for floor spacing.

    “Trading away young, cheap pieces, when you have that much money tied up in Joel Embiid and Paul George is just not a position they want to be in,” Jensen wrote. “So this is all about the finances, which is both boring and discouraging.”

    “So, sure, Philly, congrats on avoiding the tax bill, I guess.”

    Joel Embiid celebrates after scoring and drawing a foul against the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday.

    Sports Illustrated: C

    Austin Krell of Sports Illustrated gave the Sixers a C. He also looked at the deal as a win for them from the financial side, but a big risk for giving up on McCain’s upside. The Thunder received a B for getting another shooter in their push for back-to-back championships.

    “This seems like a clear indication that the Sixers viewed McCain as someone whose stock would drop if they kept him,” Krell wrote. “If we want to look at it from a financial perspective, he’s maybe the only player you could’ve moved that would’ve accomplished the goal of dodging the luxury tax while also netting actual assets in return.”

  • PHL CEO steps down to lead another airport across the country

    PHL CEO steps down to lead another airport across the country

    Philadelphia International Airport CEO Atif Saeed is stepping down, just as Philadelphia prepares for an expected influx of tourists this year.

    Saeed has led the city’s Department of Aviation, which also includes the Northeast Philadelphia Airport, since 2022, and plans to step down Feb. 27. He is heading west to be president and CEO of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.

    “Under his direction, our airports emerged stronger from the pandemic, advanced critical modernization efforts, and positioned Philadelphia to welcome the world in 2026 and beyond,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said in a statement Thursday.

    “We are grateful for his contributions and wish him continued success in this next chapter,” Parker said.

    The city plans to hire a new CEO following a national search. Tracy Borda, PHL’s chief financial officer, will be interim CEO.

    Saeed’s departure comes as Philadelphia expects to be inundated with visitors this year for the United States’ 250th anniversary, the MLB All-Star Game, and the FIFA World Cup games.

    “I will always look back at my time at PHL and PNE fondly,” Saeed said in a statement Thursday. “I am confident that our airports are ready to welcome the world for the events of 2026 and beyond.”

    Saeed came to PHL from the Metropolitan Airport Commission of Minnesota, where he was chief financial officer. The airport was still working to return to pre-pandemic-level travel, and it was continuing to cope with a growing number of people experiencing homelessness and seeking refuge at the airport.

    “From the start, by addressing the unhoused situation at PHL with a caring, multiagency approach, this team was committed to ensuring that through strategic investments and thoughtful planning, PHL and PNE are in a position of strength to continue to enhance airport operations for an even brighter future,” Saeed said Thursday.

    In 2022, Philadelphians voted to create a stand-alone aviation department within city government, which before that had operated under the Department of Commerce.

    During Saeed’s time at PHL, the airport has been updating its master plan, which identified the need for additional gates. The airport has also been positioning itself to capture more cargo activity and has been rolling out a renovation of bathroom facilities.

    Still, PHL continued to rank last in a national survey on traveler satisfaction among similarly sized airports. The airport is over 80 years old and its aging infrastructure has held it back, Saeed has said. In 2025, addressing the last-place result again, Saeed noted: “Admittedly in some places, we look our age.”

    U.S. Sen. Bob Casey spoke during ceremonies to celebrate the continued restroom renovation program at the Philadelphia International Airport in 2023.
  • Students and teachers lead a protest of the Trump administration’s removal of the President’s House slavery exhibits

    Students and teachers lead a protest of the Trump administration’s removal of the President’s House slavery exhibits

    Students and teachers from two Philly area private schools joined up with activists and protesters Friday morning at the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park to demand that the site’s slavery exhibit be restored after it was abruptly dismantled last month.

    “Whitewashing history is a totalitarian gimmick,” read one sign in a crowd that included young and older people. “All our stories must be told,” read another.

    The “teach in” was held in front of a granite wall etched with the names of nine enslaved people owned by U.S. founding father and first president George Washington. The wall is one of the few remnants of the slavery exhibit that was dismantled by order of the Trump administration.

    Standing at a lectern, the students, from Solebury School in Bucks County and Friends Select in Center City, read the biographies of the enslaved whose names had been etched on the wall.

    Activist and criminal defense attorney Michael Coard told the crowd he helped to create the slavery exhibit after learning that Washington owned enslaved people — and realizing that his educators had failed to teach him about it.

    “When I learned about that, I was enraged, because I’d never heard about it,” Coard said.

    With the help of elected officials, the President’s House Site became a reality in 2010, Coard said.

    The slavery exhibits at the President’s House have been removed following Trump administration push

    But when the Trump administration issued its “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order last March, Coard knew that the exhibit could be targeted. The order calls on the U.S. Department of the Interior to remove historical exhibits that “perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history” or “disparage Americans past or living.”

    Attorney Michael Coard makes a social media post at the now removed explanatory panels that were part of an exhibit on slavery at President’s House Site in Philadelphia, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

    “Anything pertaining to Black people, he was opposed to it,” Coard said of President Donald Trump.

    Since then, Coard said, there’s been a furious legal battle to have the site restored. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker sued the federal government. A judge ordered the government to safeguard the exhibits, which are currently in storage, while the issue plays out in federal court.

    Coard encouraged people to sign a petition, attend protests, and stay involved in future protests.

    “Just because you can’t do everything, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything,” Coard told the crowd, quoting poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron.

    Solebury School college counselor Erin Wallace joined the 50 students who traveled by bus to the site for the teach-in.

    Wallace said the students are “very active” in following national politics, and were eager to attend the protest. About 25% of the student body attended, Wallace said.

    “It was an overwhelmingly positive response,” Wallace said.

    Workers remove the display panels about slavery at the President’s House Site in Independence National Historical Park Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. The fate of exhibits at the site, which serves as a memorial to the nine people George Washington enslaved there during the founding of America, had been in limbo since President Trump’s executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” directed the Department of the Interior to review over 400 national sites to remove or modify interpretive materials that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

    Solebury School history teacher Don Kaplan of Elkins Park attended the first vigil after the site was shuttered. Kaplan said he organized the teach-in student protest because it is relevant to what he teaches his 9th- and 11th-grade students.

    “I just thought to myself, we need to address this,” Kaplan said.

    Kaplan asked that his students not be quoted directly. But after the rally, he struggled to keep his 11th graders from weighing in as he was interviewed for this story.

    “We should teach all history,” two students said.

    They explained that in Kaplan’s class, their research often shows that historical figures are not purely good or evil and were shaped by myriad forces.

    To Kaplan, that stands in contrast to the Trump administration’s perspective on teaching history, which seeks to eliminate “negative” stories about America’s founders.

    “That’s not what we do,” Kaplan said. “We have to teach every possible perspective.”

  • Trump’s sharing of a racist video of the Obamas on Truth Social is beyond the pale, even for him

    Trump’s sharing of a racist video of the Obamas on Truth Social is beyond the pale, even for him

    The late Maya Angelou had a saying that goes, “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”

    She’s gone now, but that was some really good advice.

    I am reminded of the late author’s wisdom after watching and rewatching a blatantly racist video that President Donald Trump posted on Thursday on Truth Social. It includes AI-generated imagery depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife as dancing primates.

    I am so disgusted.

    Anything to make the Obamas look bad. I wish I could share a photo of it with this column, but it’s too offensive. I’d tell you to go see his Truth Social account and look it up yourself, but I learned while writing this column that he has taken it down.

    Trump’s boorishness is no surprise. He has been showing us who he is and what MAGA is about since even before he came down that escalator at Trump Tower in 2015 and called Mexicans rapists and drug dealers.

    So it’s entirely fitting that night he would reshare a video repeating false claims about the 2020 presidential election, which he lost, that includes vile imagery about the 44th president.

    For many of 44’s supporters, the Obamas represented America at its best. And no matter where one stands politically, it would be hard to argue that Obama himself ever succumbed to the kind of impulsivity, rudeness, and disrespect we regularly see these days out of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

    But Trump is a petty, vindictive man whose obsession with the Obamas goes way back. It began in 2011, when Trump deliberately started a campaign of lies about Obama, claiming he wasn’t born in America and therefore ineligible to occupy the Oval Office.

    Some pundits argue that Trump’s Obama envy helped fuel his own run for the presidency. And now that he is in the White House for a second term, you’d think he’d be over it. But judging from the way he keeps disparaging Obama, he’s not.

    President Barack and Michelle Obama wave to the crowd from a balcony at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, after he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize at the city hall in 2009.

    Trump is furious that Obama was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize and he was not — even after relentlessly promoting himself for one. That’s why when Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado offered to give him her Nobel medal, he accepted it despite the Nobel committee’s clarification that possession of the medal alone is meaningless.

    Trump also ordered the installation of plaques under the photos of his presidential predecessors, and used the one under Obama’s to bash his legacy, calling him “one of the most divisive political figures in American history” and making other false claims.

    Plaques of explanatory text are seen beneath a framed portrait of former President Barack Obama on the Presidential Walk of Fame on the Colonnade of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Washington.
    Portraits of President Donald Trump and former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush with plaques of text below are seen on the Presidential Walk of Fame on the Colonnade of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Washington.

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to walk Trump’s post back, writing, “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King.”

    She added via text, “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

    There’s nothing fake about our outrage. We see Trump. We know what he’s doing by pulling out that old racist trope. Even Black Trump supporters like Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.) see this for what it is. “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it,” Scott wrote on social media.

    Perhaps Scott has a really short memory and has forgotten Trump’s executive orders banning diversity, equity, and inclusion, and his calling Somali Americans “garbage” and African nations “shithole countries.”

    Maybe Scott also doesn’t recall how Trump administration officials ordered the dismantling of the exhibit about the nine enslaved Africans the nation’s first president held in bondage at Sixth and Market Streets. Same thing with how Trump has ordered the renaming of military bases after the Confederate traitors they once honored.

    To him I say, “Brother, get woke.”

    This is part of a pattern. Trump has been letting us know exactly who he is and what his administration is all about for a long time now.

    MAGA supporters make excuses for his conduct, but when someone shows you who they are, believe them. Maybe they’ll get it now.