Stephen A. Smith Should Not Run for President But His Political Opinions Should

This is what happened, so don’t judge me, OK? I saw on Celebrity Jeopardy last night that Natalie Morales got an answer with the question: Who is Sterling K. Brown. Natalie Morales had a brain fart, froze up, and couldn’t answer the question, despite—as she said—the fact that Sterling K. Brown is a friend of hers! It was a very cute clip. I wanted to show it. It wasn’t available in the usual spots, so I checked X. It wasn’t available there, either (you can watch it on TVLine).

But while I was on X, I saw that Stephen A. Smith was trending. I’ve heard that the obnoxious, loudmouth, painfully annoying ESPN sports commentator has been dabbling in politics and has even—mostly jokingly—considered a run for the presidency in 2028. From what I understand, he doesn’t like Donald Trump’s politics, and while he has historically been a Democrat, he’s not a big fan of the party right now.

The idea of Stephen A. Smith running for president is preposterous. But also, here he is, vociferously pushing back on anti-DEI Sean Hannity by basically saying that Pete Hegseth is an unqualified hire.

Stephen A Smith on DEI: "When you're a weekend host on Fox News and now you're the Defense Secretary of the United States overseeing 3.5 million people, that is not qualified!"

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 4, 2025 at 9:45 PM

OK, fine. He can parry with Sean Hannity, and I’ve seen him do it a few times. But honestly, so can Pete Buttigieg. That doesn’t qualify someone to be the Democratic candidate. But here’s Smith on Trump’s Gaza policy (and sorry for the Nazi cooties from the X video, but it’s the only place where I can find video clips like this):

Stephen A: "For Trump to say the Palestinians should just leave, that doesn't even begin to say irresponsible" pic.twitter.com/0PCGcMNRiA

— Stephen A. Smith 2028 (@SASForPres) February 6, 2025

Here he is again saying that what Trump means by anti-DEI is actually “white dominance,” and he ain’t wrong.

Stephen A Smith on Trump ending DEI: "What you're really saying is, you want white dominance"

Why does he believe Black people are inferior and that if the playing field is level, white people will dominate?

This man has no intelligent thoughts.

pic.twitter.com/xpOHmILlsE

— T.J. Moe (@TJMoe28) February 4, 2025

And finally, here he is—yesterday—standing up for trans folks, which, honestly, is better than a lot of Democrats right now.

Stephen A: "I don't care if you're transgender, I will fight for the LGBTQ+ community any day of the week" pic.twitter.com/9C66t8c3qw

— Stephen A. Smith 2028 (@SASForPres) February 6, 2025

When it comes to your civil liberties, “right is right.”

There are four more years until the next election. It’s way too soon to talk about 2028 (although, the sooner we do, the sooner Trump becomes a lame duck). I don’t know who people will be interested in by then. But I do know that Smith’s message is resonating with a very large listenership. It also resonates with me. I don’t know what else Smith believes in — he’s a Yankees fan, so ugh — but I appreciate that, instead of running away from trans and DEI issues as too many Democrats seem to be doing, he is explaining why they are good and standing up for Palestinians in Gaza, which is not happening very much right now in the Democratic party.

Stephen A. Smith as the voice of reason? God help us.