Stephen A. Smith is firing back at Rachel Lindsay after the Higher Learning co host suggested he went looking for validation from Donald Trump, and he made it clear his confidence was around long before any White House dinner.
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In a video he posted, Stephen A. said he was “very disappointed” in what he heard from Lindsay, someone he called a person he is very fond of and has always respected. Then he addressed the validation claim head on.
“I think I’m different. I think I’m special. I’m not going to deny that. That’s how I feel about myself. But I damn sure don’t need Donald Trump to make me feel that way,” he said. “I felt that way about myself practically all my life. The hell I need Donald Trump to confirm that for.”
Lindsay and her co host Van Lathan broke down the dinner on the Oct. 20 episode of their Ringer podcast, Higher Learning, where they accused Stephen A. of normalizing Trump by being hospitable to him. D.L. Hughley also came after him, questioning why people with racial animus seem so comfortable around him. Stephen A. went down the list one by one.
On the claim that he walked out of the dinner praising Trump, he said he was simply describing what happened that night.
“What do you mean praising him? Acknowledging that he was a hospitable host and that he talked with us for four hours and that we were free to argue with one another without vitriol or anything like that at the time,” Stephen A. said.
That is where Bill Maher came in. Stephen A. attended the Oct. 15 White House dinner with Maher and Kid Rock, and he has said Maher was the one who extended the invitation to him after Trump told Maher he could bring a guest. On Sunday, Trump turned on Maher in a Truth Social post of roughly 1,300 words, calling him a “complete and total loser” and a “major pothead,” claiming Maher was drunk and walked through the White House with alcohol in his hand, and calling the dinner a waste of time. Trump also disputed Maher’s claim that the dinner lasted four hours, and closed with a message for the comedian: “Bill: Don’t call anymore.” The post came two days after Maher defended the dinners on his HBO show Real Time.
Stephen A. made it clear he is staying out of that one.
“I know I just saw him remark about Bill Maher and that’s between them. That’s not what happened at the time that I said what I said. What’s the problem with that?” he said.
The third criticism was that the dinner accomplished nothing. Stephen A.’s response was short: “How do you know?”
He has said he went to the White House with three agendas: underemployment among Black women, funding for HBCUs, and Trump’s opposition to the Protect College Sports Act. According to Stephen A., Trump called him a few days after the dinner and asked him to go over his HBCU points again because Trump planned to discuss the issue with others. On The View last week, he told the hosts he was not apologizing to anybody for sitting down with Trump, arguing that Trump is not going anywhere until 2028 and that refusing to talk to him gets nothing done.
The relationship has swung fast. Back in June, Trump questioned whether Stephen A. was smart enough to run for president, saying he needed a high IQ he did not think Stephen A. had. After the dinner, Trump told reporters, “Stephen A. is great,” and called his guests “smart people.”
