ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith took a moment during Thursday morning’s edition of First Take to call out President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth, challenging any of the three to a debate on the administration’s push to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion, commonly referred to as DEI initiatives.
Smith’s ire was brought out after the Department of Defense removed an article covering the military service of baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson from its site earlier this week.
“Nobody is calling out the president, Donald Trump. I will,” Smith began, before saying he would not devolve into name-calling.
“When you look at the actions of this administration and you’re talking about DEI—diversity, equity and inclusion—and you’re equating that with Black people and you’re using words like ‘unqualified’” citing Trump’s response to the recent plane crash in Washington D.C. airspace.
“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… but the fact of the matter is, how is he not DEI? He was a soldier and then he was a 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 concluded with a clear offer to a debate.
“President Trump, I’m happy to sit down with you to have that conversation, sir. I’d love for you to try to defend it,” he said. “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 challenges President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to publicly debate the administration's stance on DEI.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 20, 2025
"Stephen A. Smith is calling you out on national television. I'd love for you to sit down with the cameras… pic.twitter.com/aWAK2cM3Gx
Earlier in the week, ESPN’s Jeff Passan had investigated the disappearance of the Robinson page in question, noting that before the article was taken down, the URL redirected to one that added “dei” in front of “sports-heroes.”
After Passan asked for comment on the page’s disappearance, the Department of Defense issued a statement railing against DEI initiatives, twisting the definition of the term.
"As Secretary Hegseth has said, DEI is dead at the Defense Department," the statement read. "Discriminatory equity ideology is a form of woke cultural Marxism that has no place in our military. It divides the force, erodes unit cohesion and interferes with the services' core warfighting mission. We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms. 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 accordingly."
An updated statement followed later, which said that “Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson.”
Smith has not shied away from politics, and has in fact steered into more political matters in recent years, including teasing a potential run for office. We’ll see if any of his debate offers get taken up.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Stephen A. Smith Challenges President Trump to Come on Show and Defend Stance on DEI.
