Stephen A Smith has broken his silence after being spotted arriving at the White House on Thursday, as the ESPN host continues to ramp up his political involvement.
The 59-year-old TV star was filmed casually strolling into the West Wing on Thursday afternoon, sparking immediate speculation across social media regarding his visit.
Upon exit, Smith revealed that he had conducted a 40-minute interview with President Trump, which is set to air tonight on his YouTube channel.
Among the topics, Smith claimed that he discussed the Republican party‘s disaster in the recent midterms, as well as the saga involving Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
As Smith walked away from gathered reporters at the White House, he was asked whether they discussed the press secretary role.
‘No we did not,’ Smith replied. Another reporter asked whether the ESPN host had been offered the job, to which he said: ‘No way in hell.’
ESPN host Stephen A Smith conducted an interview with Donald Trump on Thursday afternoon
It comes over a month after Smith lifted the lid on his four-hour dinner with Trump
Smith’s surprise appearance at the nation’s capital comes just weeks after the First Take host enjoyed an ‘epic’ four-hour dinner with President Donald Trump in October.
During that lengthy sit-down, the prominent sports media figure was also joined by comedian Bill Maher and veteran musician Kid Rock.
In the days and weeks that followed, ESPN host Smith faced backlash from fans after it emerged that he sat down with the commander-in-chief.
Smith later defended his decision on The View, stating: ‘I came there with three agendas. Number one, to address unemployment with Black women in this country.
‘I came to address the ‘Protect College Sports Act’ that obviously was passed through the Senate and now has to go through the House, which I’m not a supporter of because I don’t think it has representation for the student-athlete.
‘And of course, number one on my list was HBCUs.’
The ‘First Take’ host added that Trump was unexpectedly receptive to Smith’s frustrations and later phoned up the 59-year-old to further understand the matters.
Smith added: ‘To his credit, he said, ‘I actually didn’t think about that. I’m going to think about that a lot more and I’ll be talking to you about it.’
‘To his credit, thereafter, he called me after the meeting a couple of days later to ask me to reiterate what my points were about the HBCUs, because he plans on talking to people about that in the next few days.’
The ESPN host spoke to reporters shortly after conducting the forty-minute interview
Smith then turned his attention to The View co-host Ana Navarro, who had taken aim at the ESPN star over his controversial dinner with Trump just one day prior.
He continued: ‘It points to a bigger issue. There are so many people that have this mentality [of] why even waste time talking to him? Whether you like it or not, he’s the president of the United States of America. He’s not going away until 2028.
‘Until 2028, he has the power of the pen of the executive office of the commander-in-chief of the United States of America.
‘You’re going to have to deal with him, 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 interests of our community. I’m not apologizing for that to anybody.’
