Stephen A. Smith said Monday that he was “glad” President Donald Trump won re-election in 2024, citing the Democratic Party’s long-standing manipulation of black voters as a key reason for his satisfaction.
Speaking on “CUOMO,” the ESPN host slammed Democrats for relying on emotional appeals and fear rather than substantive policy to court black support. “They wanted to make sure, ‘Oh, we’re going to point to racism. We’re going to guilt you into voting for us,’” Smith said. “We’re not going to talk about the things that we’re doing positively… and it didn’t work this time.”
Trump won 13% of the black vote in November, including 21% of men, according to CNN exit polls. Smith said that result, while still low, showed black voters weren’t falling for old tactics. “Black Americans have played the role of suckers to the Democratic Party,” he said. “They’ve guilted us into voting for them… instead of saying, ‘Hey, this is what we will do for you.’”
Smith has been increasingly critical of Democrats in recent months. On “Rob Schmitt Tonight” in March, he noted that many black Americans live conservatively despite voting Democratic. “Our parents raised us in a certain way… you can’t come into the home with that kind of nonsense when you talk to your mother, your father,” he said.
He also argued that the party had lost touch by focusing on divisive social issues like pronoun usage and gender-specific bathrooms instead of core concerns like the economy and border security. “It became a bit crazy and quite frankly a bit unfair,” Smith said.
In contrast, Smith has credited Trump for success in immigration enforcement. “When it comes to immigration enforcement, there is no doubt that Donald Trump has been successful,” he said on “The Stephen A. Smith Show” on April 28.
The Trump administration has touted major declines in illegal border crossings. A 100-day fact sheet shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation claimed that migrant crossings had plunged 99.99%, with daily border encounters down 93%.
Under the Biden administration, the U.S.-Mexico border saw roughly 8.5 million migrant encounters from fiscal years 2021 to 2024, according to Customs and Border Protection. Smith said Biden’s “open border policy” had damaged the public’s trust and sense of security.