NBA analyst and sports talk host Stephen A. Smith recently cleared the air about rumors of him running for U.S. president in 2028. Per TMZ, a recent report stated that Smith, 57, was “gaining attention as a possible Democratic candidate for the 2028 presidential election.”
But when the celebrity and entertainment news outlet asked Smith if that was the case, he said, “I ain’t trying to run for office or anything like that.”
“I love talking politics. I love talking about things not just sports. If the American people want to sit up there and say ‘Yo we want Stephen A. to run’ I’m not going to be mad at that,” he added.
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The 57-year-old continued: “I don’t know what the hell they’re thinking. I ain’t qualified, but if you want to go ahead and entertain it, you can go ahead and entertain it.”
But despite admitting he wasn’t qualified to run for president of the United States, he said Trump assuming the country’s most powerful seat for the second time was an inspiration to all.
“He’s inspired all of us because if he can be president, a lot of us could be president,” Smith stated.
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Smith is known for being outspoken and touching on topics outside of sports. In November 2024, he registered his displeasure over the NFL responding to players mimicking the viral “Trump dance” during celebrations, Face2Face Africa reported.
Several athletes within and outside of the NFL had mimicked the then-president-elect’s viral dance, which he occasionally did at his campaign rallies. And with the viral dance taking over the American sports scene at the time, the NFL released a statement saying it was not going to punish players who bust that move.
But Smith on his podcast said that the statement from the league was unnecessary. “Celebrations usually don’t warrant that. It doesn’t require a response from the league,” Smith said at the time.
“So why was it necessary this time? You know why? Because we got a bunch of people still living with their heads in the cloud acting like they get to protest every little damn thing. This is America. Donald Trump won the election, rather convincingly, I might add.”
“And why am I ticked off?” Smith added. “Because it was emblematic of the climate that we’ve been living in for years now, which is why I believe Donald Trump was really elected… woke culture, cancel culture, oh hell yes, that played a role. When you got people walking around wondering whether or not they’re echoing the right pronoun.
“Wondering whether or not that was gonna cost them their job or being PC because God forbid your opinion is different than the average folk walking around in America. Lord knows what would happen to you. That’s what America regressed to.”
