Stephen A. Smith should have corrected Trump’s falsehoods about Black people and HBCUs

ESPN sports commentator Stephen A. Smith, who has helped platform MAGA propaganda in the past, continued that trend Wednesday during a town hall exchange with Donald Trump, in which the president spread falsehoods about his administration’s assault on college campuses and his support for historically Black colleges and universities.

Smith let the president slide on two claims I found particularly egregious at the event, which featured the “First Take” host on a panel with right-wing commentator Bill O’Reilly and NewsNation host Chris Cuomo. The first came after Smith asked Trump about his blatantly partisan attacks on colleges and universities. Smith asked Trump about Harvard and whether his administration’s attempts to force changes at the university constitute an attack on academic freedom — but Trump randomly pivoted to talking about “riots” in Harlem and claimed that New Yorkers “went up” and protested against Harvard — which is in Massachusetts — for some reason, before making the baseless claim that Black people support his crackdown on the university.

“They agree with what I’m doing with respect to Harvard,” Trump said by phone in a meandering rant.

This was nonsensical. There’s no evidence Black people — let alone people in Harlem — support any college crackdown en masse. In fact, as my MSNBC colleague Steve Benen recently covered, a recent Washington Post poll showed a whopping 70% majority of U.S. adults oppose Trump’s efforts to bend colleges and universities to his will, and about two-thirds support Harvard in the current standoff.

But rather than push back on the president’s false claim, Smith teed up another question, asking whether HBCU funding is at risk under this administration. As I see it, Trump opened the door to this possibility during last year’s campaign, when he openly floated the possibility of investigating HBCU presidents who didn’t vote for him. That seemed to send a clear message that HBCU leaders who don’t support Trump could face some sort of repercussion, whether personally or institutionally, if he were elected.

In his response, Trump said HBCUs shouldn’t be concerned “at all” before dubiously claiming he “saved” historically Black colleges and universities during his first term and that all HBCU presidents love Trump — “every one of ’em.”

“They’re in great shape now and they have long-term financing, and nobody did that but Donald Trump,” the president said.

In reality, NBC News spoke with several HBCU leaders who are concerned about long-term funding under Trump.

In reality, NBC News spoke with several HBCU leaders who are concerned about long-term funding under Trump. And I’ve been grateful for current and former HBCU leaders — such as former Dillard University President Walter Kimbrough — who’ve corrected the record on Trump’s false claims of having been a savior.

Last year, Inside Higher Ed spoke with Kimbrough and other HBCU leaders for a report highlighting that while Trump did approve some funding for HBCUs during his first term, this support was largely spearheaded by lawmakers in Congress — and, in fact, Trump’s budget proposals called for cuts to federal programs that HBCU students rely on to help them afford schooling.

In other words, Trump’s claim of having “saved” HBCUs, which went unchecked by Smith, was far from the truth.