Stephen A. Smith used to be ‘friendly’ with Donald Trump: ‘All the brothers found him cool’

Stephen A. Smith might not like Donald Trump the politician, but he kind of liked Donald Trump the businessperson and reality TV star.

As Smith continues his post-election media tour to break down Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris, his latest stop saw him return to Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast. During the interview, Maher asked Smith about Trump having ‘genuine Black friends’ and receiving support from Black voters despite allegations that the president-elect is racist.

“I wouldn’t call myself his friend by any stretch of the imagination back in the day,” Smith said. “But I’ve told this on many occasions. I said this in my recent appearance on The View and stuff like that. Trump and I were friendly before he ran for president.

“He used to have these boxing matches, particularly during the Tyson fights at the Trump casinos. He would be at the Knicks games and stuff like that. And if we’re being totally honest, all the brothers found him to be cool. They found him to be very cool. Because he knew his sports, he would say what he feel, he bucked the establishment, which we loved and we gravitated to that, and obviously he was a billionaire. It was cool.”

Maher attributed some of the allegations of racism against Trump to his age. “Is he really in his heart hateful?” Maher asked. “I don’t think his motivation is, ‘I don’t like Black people.’ I think his motivation is, ‘Everybody must love me.’”

“I have never called him a racist,” Smith said. “I have never spoken about him that way. Ever. Not one time, not one time. Because I knew him beforehand.”

Smith proceeded to recall a story he told on First Take a few years ago, sharing that Trump called him in 2014 during his attempt at buying the Buffalo Bills. During the phone call, Trump vowed to get back at the NFL by running for president if the owners denied his attempt at joining their fraternity by purchasing the Bills. Smith believes Trump intentionally hijacked Colin Kaepernick kneeling for social justice in hopes of hurting the NFL just as the owners were preparing for legalized gambling to increase their revenue.

“Trump was making the case and hijacked the whole Colin Kaepernick fiasco, just to get the owners back,” Smith insisted, just as he did on First Take more than two years ago. “I’m telling you what I know. Just to get them back. To get in the way of them getting ahold of their money because they got in the way of him owning the Buffalo Bills.”

It is fair to wonder how Trump would have reacted to Kaepernick if he was an NFL owner. He certainly wouldn’t stand to gain anything by hijacking or even criticizing the situation publicly the way he did as POTUS. But apparently, this was all part of Trump’s plan of getting back at the NFL. And strangely, someone he was “friendly” with at ESPN knew about it first.

[Club Random]