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Stephen A. Smith doubled down on defending his meeting with President Donald Trump during an episode of his “Straight Shooter” show on Thursday, challenging his critics by asking, “What the f— are you doing?”
Smith said during the show he wanted to bring several issues to Trump’s attention, but his top priority was to tell the president, “With the squashing of DEI initiatives, it’s essentially had a different kind of effect. It’s discouraged CEOs of corporations in the private sector to be philanthropic and charitable with their money and give to HBCUs because they’re fearful it will be perceived as a DEI initiative being exercised by them.”
“I needed the president to speak out against that, and he said he didn’t think about that and that is something that he was going to tackle, not to mention the fact he followed up with a call to assure me that’s exactly what he was going to tackle in a matter of days when he meets with these HBCU officials. Now I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I tried, as I always have and as I always will,” Smith said.
Smith met with Trump, comedian Bill Maher and musician Kid Rock at the White House on Oct. 15.
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Stephen A. Smith speaks on stage as he and Christopher Russo host SiriusXM shows live from Fanatics Fest at Javits Center on July 17, 2026, in New York City. (Getty Images for SiriusXM)
“All of these folks that are complaining about me showing up to the White House with Bill Maher, what the f— are you doing? Have you done anything? Are you doing anything? I’m sorry for cussing. I don’t mean to, apologizing to the executives at SiriusXM, but damn it. Sometimes we do stuff on the air that we do off the air. This is ridiculous. I mean, it’s just, it’s never enough,” Smith argued.
Smith repeatedly criticized comedian D.L. Hughley during the show, after Hughley questioned Smith’s meeting with Trump on the “Uncertain” podcast.
“Why is it that Trump feels so comfortable talking to you when he’s shown an aversion to people that challenge him?” Hughley asked during the discussion, as he and his co-hosts criticized Smith for sitting down with the president. “If you challenge him, that’s it. Why is it? It isn’t that where Stephen A. Smith finds himself his positions, it is that why are people that have a disdain for us so comfortable around you?”
“I think that it says something about you when the people who hate us like you,” Hughley added. “Why is it the people that hate my heroes love you?”
Smith criticized Hughley over his comments, saying, “I’m sick and tired of people b—-ing and moaning about what needs to be done in our community, but when somebody is actually trying to take steps to do something about it in our own small way, we selling out. We this, we that. What you doing? What you doing? It’s a rhetorical question ’cause we know the answer ain’t nothing but b—-ing.”
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Smith also defended his Trump meeting during an appearance on “The View” on Wednesday. He told the co-hosts he would not apologize for it.
Co-host Sunny Hostin asked Smith, “He has this history of racial bias that is so clear. Did you think meeting with him, that you got anywhere?”
“I don’t know. We’ll find out, but he’s the president of the United States, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to try,” he said. “And the reality is I’m just speaking from a constitutional perspective in that regard.”
He repeatedly argued that Trump would remain in office until 2028 and that people needed to deal with it.
“You’re going to have to deal with him,” he continued. “And when it comes to getting things done, I’m all about exhausting every means and every measure to try to do what’s in the best interest of our community. I’m not apologizing for that to anybody.”
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Stephen A. Smith speaks on stage as he and Christopher Russo host SiriusXM shows live from Fanatics Fest at Javits Center on July 17, 2026, in New York City. (Getty Images for SiriusXM)
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“Stephen A. Smith and Bill Maher, along with John Fetterman, are a dying breed of individuals who believe in the exchange of ideas and positions with those they all may disagree with, as exemplified by the recent dinner at the White House with President Trump and Kid Rock,” Fox News contributor Joe Concha told Fox News Digital in a statement about Smith’s remarks. “Unfortunately, the trend on the left is to shut down anyone through censorship or otherwise anything resembling debate.”