Musical artist turned conservative shill Kid Rock made headlines last Friday when he revealed that he had dinner at the White House with President Donald Trump and media pundits Bill Maher and Stephen A. Smith.
News of Trump hosting that meeting resulted in criticism of Smith, including from his former ESPN colleague Jemele Hill, who parted ways with the network in the fall of 2018 partially due to the fallout of her calling Trump a white supremacist and a bigot on Twitter.
Not everyone was against Smith’s decision to attend the dinner as a guest of Maher, though, as hip-hop legend Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell defended Smith’s choice in a debate with Hill.
“Our people in the Black community are out here suffering. Why wouldn’t we have a conversation with the people in power?” Luke wrote in a tweet replying to Smith’s explanation of why he accepted the White House dinner invite. “Everything I’ve gotten done for my community has come from being able to talk to Democrats AND Republicans. You have to be willing to sit at the table and ask for what your people need.”
“Having a conversation with [Trump] doesn’t mean you agree with everything he says or does. It means you’re bringing your community’s needs directly to the person who has the power to help. Our people deserve resources, answers, and results,” he added.
Hill strongly disagreed with Luke’s assessment of the meeting, responding in a tweet of her own:
“Let’s just be honest here: Donald Trump has zero interest in improving the lives of Black folks in this country and has never been serious about helping our community,” Hill wrote.
“In policy, deed, action and rhetoric, he has proven this repeatedly. Just last week, his administration launched an investigation into the programs Wells Fargo instituted a decade to increase Black home ownership. Does that sound like someone who is open to changing course about how he has treated our community?
“His nonstop attack on DEI programs, federal budget cuts that had a disproportionate impact on Black federal workers, censorship of Black history or outright removal of Black historic figures, cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and SNAP — does any of that sound like someone who is willing to change their approach?
“He got exactly what he wanted out of this dinner. He ran right to the media to brag about how much celebrities like him. He wanted to prove his power and how much people are dying to have access to him.
“Congratulations, he did exactly that. How many times are y’all going to fall for the banana in the tailpipe?”
Smith said in the aftermath of the dinner with Trump, who once said Smith did not have an IQ high enough to run for president, that his No. 1 goal of going was to advocate for more funding for HBCUs.
While Trump signed legislation that guaranteed $255 million in annual federal funding to minority-serving institutions during his first term in 2019 and committed an additional $612 million over the 2025 and 2026 fiscal years, Smith says he explained to Trump during last week’s meeting that HBCU funding from the private sector is currently suffering due to hesitancy about backlash from the Trump administration’s attack on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
“What I was saying to him was, ‘That’s you,'” Smith said about his message to Trump about HBCU funding. “‘But last time I checked, Mr. President, you were a conservative, at least in office.’ There’s a Republican legislature in the House and the Senate. And as a guy that believes in free-market capitalism, yes, that funding from the feds is one thing, but there’s additional funding that comes from the private sector.
“That [private-sector funding] has been compromised to some degree because of your administration’s fixation on making sure there are no racial preferences. So as a result, corporations in the private sector, believing that the government may come after them if they were to be as charitable as they once were, are hesitant to do so now. Mr. President, what you going to do about that?”
Smith says that Trump indicated he made a “good point,” and claimed that the president said he would look into the matter with his team and potentially call him on the phone to follow up. The ESPN “First Take” executive producer then said that he did not want to create a distraction by getting deeply involved with fixing the issue, while saying the goal is ultimately to “help each other as much as we possibly can.”
While it appears Smith left the dinner with Trump feeling optimistic about the president taking his concerns seriously, Hill is still not buying that anything fruitful will come out of the meeting. In her final tweet during the back and forth with Luke, Hill explained why she does not believe Trump cares about the needs of Black people:
“So now you think Donald Trump called Stephen A Smith to discuss the ‘needs of Black community?’ That’s what you think this dinner was about? Come on, now. I’m supposed to believe something serious is going to be accomplished at a dinner Kid Rock — who started cosplaying as a southern racist to save his career — and Bill Maher?
“If you’re trying to find common ground with someone on the opposite side, both sides have to come into it with honest intentions. Has that EVER been Donald Trump? No. We have had six years of Trump and he has never shown any interest in serving anyone but himself. He has put most of his supporters in a worse position than they were previously, but I’m supposed to believe he suddenly cares about the ‘needs of the Black community?’
“And don’t give Trump the excuse of ignorance. He knows exactly how he has screwed over Black folks and he relishes in it. If he cared about the needs of our community — or the American people overall — then Project 2025 doesn’t exist.
“You can’t appeal to a bully. They don’t care.”
Trump’s dinner with Smith was among multiple meetings with Black figures in the sports realm he has had in the lead-up to the November midterm elections. The president was seen at speaking events and political rallies in recent weeks alongside Baltimore Ravens players, boxing legends Mike Tyson and Floyd Mayweather, and former NFL and Georgia Bulldogs running back Todd Gurley.
