“President Trump, I’m happy to sit down with you to have that conversation, sir,” Smith said on Thursday morning’s episode of ESPN’s First Take. “I’d love for you to try to defend it.”
“Vice President Vance, you too. Pete Hegseth, you too. Stephen A. Smith is calling you out on national television. I’d love for you to sit down with the cameras rolling and try to defend this. It’s ridiculous.”
Stephen A. Smith on the Department of Defense temporarily removing an article about Jackie Robinson’s Army history: “Nobody is calling out the President, Donald Trump. I will. I’m not gonna call him names and all this stuff like stupid folks on the left are doing. Engaging in… pic.twitter.com/dlabvFIhCC
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 20, 2025
The challenge appeared to arise from Smith’s outrage over the Department of Defense‘s removal and reinstatement of an article honoring baseball legend and Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson during a purge of DEI in the DOD.
“[Robinson] served in our military. Drafted, served our country, and for hours upon hours in a day … his stuff was scrubbed, and we’re supposed to believe that’s accidental?” Smith said to co-host Molly Qerim.
“We were born at night, Molly, some of us anyway. Not last night! Not last night!”
The Defense Department addressed the removal of the article on Robinson, who became the first African American to break the color barrier in the MLB, in a statement, according to a report.
“We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms,” the statement read. “In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period.”
The Defense Department “loves” Jackie Robinson, the Navajo Code Talkers, Tuskegee airman, and all the patriotic men and woman throughout American military history, according to the statement.
“We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex. We do only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like ever other American who has worn the uniform,” it read.
“DEI — Discriminatory Equity Ideology does the opposite. It Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission.”
Smith also raised the contention that DEI is only being equated with black people when white women and individuals like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have benefitted from it.
“Pete Hegseth is the head of the Defense Department. He has served our country with honor. I am not trying to knock him or denigrate him in any way,” Smith said. “But, the fact of the matter is, how is he not DEI?”
“He was a solider, and then he was a host on Fox News on the weekends, and he goes from that to being the head of a Defense Department that oversees more than 3.5 million people.”
Smith, who has teased a possible transition to politics, refused to resort to insulting the president or his administration in his callout.
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“Nobody is calling out the president, Donald Trump. I will. I’m not gonna call him names and all this stuff like stupid folks on the left are doing,” he said. “Engaging in incendiary rhetoric. It’s unnecessary. It’s immature, and it’s uncalled for.”
“He’s the president of the United States. Treat him with the respect that he deserves. But in the same breath, call him to the carpet for stuff that he’s doing.”
