‘It’s Really, Really Disgusting!’ Stephen A. Smith Torches Trump for Calling LeBron James a ‘Racist’

Stephen A. Smith went to bat for LeBron James — with whom he has had a longstanding feud — and blasted President Donald Trump for calling the NBA icon a “racist.”

In a scorching commentary to kick off his YouTube show Monday, Smith absolutely blasted Trump’s comments last week from the Oval Office in which he said, “I think LeBron is, maybe he’s a racist. But maybe he doesn’t like Trump I don’t know?”

“Our president is trifling,” Smith said. He added, “When you’re calling LeBron James a racist, you know what? You know, it’s really getting ridiculous. The divisiveness, the way that this man acts, the things that he says, it’s really really disgusting. And it needs to be said. I held it in long enough. I was waiting a few days, but then obviously being back to work today, and listening to this nonsense, it’s just really, really disgusting!”

Smith and James got into a tense altercation at a Lakers game in May 2025 over Smith’s past criticism of James’s son, Bronny James. The ESPN First Take host has criticized James countless times over the years, and there doesn’t seem to be any love lost between the two.

“We don’t like each other,” Smith said on a February 2026 podcast. “The world needs to know that.”

Nonetheless Smith defended James against the president’s attacks.

“We gotta call stuff out,” Smith said. “We gotta call it out for what we see. We gotta call it out for what it is. Because
the only way that the world is going to become a better place is when we call out trifling tendencies. Even if it’s from our president, even if it’s from our commander-in-chief. And this is the latest salvo that he’s thrown in somebody’s direction ultimately to distract from the job that he’s doing. And we got to call him out on it. We just have to.”

Watch above, via YouTube.

Jason Cohen contributed to this post.

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