Dave Smith Applauded at MAGA Event for Accusing Trump of ‘Actively Covering Up a Giant Child Rapist Ring’

Charlie Kirk hosted a debate over the weekend on President Donald Trump’s military strikes on Iran last month between comedian and non-interventionist Dave Smith and columnist Josh Hammer, who argued for the strikes.

Smith grabbed headlines in recent weeks for his strong condemnation of Trump, publicly apologizing for backing Trump in the 2024 election, and accusing the president of breaking his campaign promises since taking office. Smith has also been a fierce critic of the Trump administration’s handling of the so-called “Epstein Files,” which has roiled the MAGA base in recent weeks as critics accuse Trump of a cover-up.

The lengthy debate at Turning Point USA’s pro-MAGA Student Action Summit became very tense at times as Smith and Hammer attacked each other and Kirk worked overtime to keep things civil.

Hammer at one point read some of Smith’s recent online criticism of Trump and said he was “disgusted” to be sharing the stage with the libertarian-leaning comedian turned political commentator. “Dave Smith, July 8th, 2025, ‘In the last month, Donald Trump has launched a war of aggression on behalf of a foreign government, exploded the debt, announced that he’s continuing the Biden policy of arming Ukraine, and covered up a giant child rape operation,’” Hammer said, quoting Smith. He added:

So, according to my interlocutor, Donald Trump is not just engaging in wars on behalf of foreign governments. He is also covering up the world’s giant pedophilic child sex trafficking ring, allegedly, I presume on behalf of foreign governments as well. So I’m disgusted, frankly, that this man is on stage, but I’ll end it at that.

“OK, well, got it. So you can see, peace is hard. I’m trying to keep the peace. Now, Dave, I want to give you an opportunity, about four minutes to respond to that. But also, I do want to, now that we had the opening salvos and the Tomahawk missiles launched, let’s respond as you see fit. No, and then bring us to the 12-day war. Let’s stay focused on that,” said Kirk, trying to keep the debate on topic.

“Well, the thing, Charlie, is—” Smith replied as Kirk clarified, “Defend yourself, obviously.”

“Well, the thing is, Charlie, as you may have noticed—and some of you may have seen some of my other debates—every single time I come up here to debate issues, and they come up to debate me and my character, it’s all they have every single time,” Smith continued, adding:

Because they can’t actually take on any of the arguments, and so the most pathetic low-hanging fruit of ‘you guys like Trump, this guy said bad things about Trump’—listen, guys, I’m a free American. I supported Donald Trump in this last election. Yes, he did just actively cover up a giant child rapist ring, and I’m going to criticize him for that.

After a loud cheer from the audience, Smith added, “Okay? And I’m sorry. After all these years of us right-wingers saying, ‘protect the children,’ come on, that’s bad for your soul if you don’t speak up about that. It’s horrible what he’s doing. And you know, as far as the actual substance of what Josh said here, which there really wasn’t much, but I already pointed this out the last time we debated.”

“His topic about how Sharon was against the war in Iraq is total nonsense. Sharon’s envoy initially opposed it when he found out that Bush was going to invade Iraq, not because he didn’t want Saddam Hussein to be overthrown, but because he wanted regime change in Iran first. And then when the George W. Bush administration assured him that Iran would come next, they got on board with it, and they started pumping out all types of propaganda about how Saddam Hussein’s nuclear secret sites that didn’t exist,” Smith said, adding:

And Benjamin Netanyahu, the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history, that year, in 2002, came to Congress and testified under congressional testimony that anyone can go watch and advocated not that the U.S. let Israel do it, but that the US overthrows Saddam Hussein. I believe his words were, ‘I guarantee that peace will spread through the region.’

And he also advocated that we overthrow Muammar Gaddafi and the mullahs in Iran. So that’s just—you’re just wrong about it. That’s not true. And yes… Have I been critical of Donald Trump when I think he gets things wrong? Yeah. I mean, I think that’s what we should do. This is America. You criticize the government when they get things wrong.

Watch the clip above.