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Stephen A. Smith
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Bill O'Reilly
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Bill O'Reilly
Joining me now is a conservative political commentator, actually a registered independent. He's also a best selling author and obviously an elite television personality. He's been around a long time. He knows what the hell is going on. He is the one and only Mr. Bill O'Reilly. Welcome back to the Stephen A. Smith show, sir. How you doing? How's everything?
Stephen A. Smith
You know, I don't know why I'm doing this, but everything else is fine.
Bill O'Reilly
What do you mean you don't know why you're doing this? I mean you're on, you're on with your young buddy right here. That's why you're doing this, Bill, because I had to have you on the show because I'm, I want to. What the hell is going on, man? I got, we got parades in the nation's capital while protests are going on all over the country. These no king protests that's been taking place all over the United States of America opposing what Donald Trump is doing in your words. Bill O'Reilly, could you explain to everybody what the hell is going on with the Trump administration in America right now.
Stephen A. Smith
As I can, STEPHEN A. And that's why you have me on, for clarity of thought. Okay. So on billoriley.com I write a message every day. Everybody can read it. You don't have to join up. All you have to do is want a perspective. 80 million people voted for Donald Trump. 75 million voted for Kamala Harris. I submit to you that about half of the Harris supporters voted against Trump. They loathe him. And therefore the no king demonstrations were no surprise to any of us who understand how much fury there is on the left that Donald Trump is president. Doesn't matter what he does. Could be immigration, could be Iran, could be Medicaid, doesn't matter. So when a mass demonstration is called for, you're going to get a pretty good turnout. This was low, in my estimation, across the country, the 200. They say 2,000 protests, but there were really 200 of note and there weren't that many people. But I wasn't surprised because the immigration has lighted a fuse that the left is just crazed about. So the no king stuff was predictable, didn't really amount to much. Now, the military thing was not well attended, but again, that's predictable. It's Washington, D.C. 3% of voters in the district voted for Trump, 3%. So, yeah, they're not going to come out and wave at him on his birthday and say, yeah, we like all the tanks. So most of this stuff, it's whipped up by the media into hysteria, but it's predictable.
Bill O'Reilly
And I get where you're coming from, that it's predictable. But in the same breath, don't you find yourself wishing, I don't want to act like optics are everything, but it does matter. You know, you've got a situation where you have this parade going on and celebrating the 250th anniversary of the army and what have you. It coincides with his 79th birthday and it's in the midst of these riots taking place across the United States of America. And in one way, you're looking at it and you're saying, okay, it appears to be much ado about nothing. It's just typical people who are against him and against his policies, against his administration, they're going to protest. On the other hand, it seems like he's feeding it as a distractionary measure because of some of the other things that aren't necessarily working, whether it's the tariffs in some people's eyes, whether it's some of this stuff going on with ICE in Los Angeles and beyond, whether it's the war in Ukraine, with Russia, Israel and Iran right now, Israel and Hamas, before some of the things that he thought would work, that he swore he would resolve. That's not necessarily what the American people are seeing right now. Bill, what do you say to that? That this is basically an evasive or distractionary tactic on behalf of the president as we speak? What about that?
Stephen A. Smith
I don't see it that way. It's celebratory. Trump wants to celebrate his position and so he uses his power to do that. The one thing that Trump miscalculated, that is obvious and still vexing him is Ukraine. So he said on day one, I'll solve it and it would have happened if I were president. Well, that's proved very, very difficult for him. But on all the other fronts, he believes the tariffs are going to heighten the economy. The initial numbers are good for Trump on that. The Magabase supports the deportations, although I have suggested that the Homeland Security apparatus have a fail safe, if you will, or a mechanism. That mechanism is probably a better word to examine humane situations. So if you're swept up and you're not a criminal migrant, but you're involved with a raid and they take you into custody, there should be a mechanism so that your situation would be examined by Homeland Security. Say you have three kids at home, all of whom are American citizens, but you are not. That would be under humane. So they would let you out and not deport you. If Trump would do that, that would take a lot of the sting out of it. But, you know, look, all I can do is suggest patterns of behavior that would be beneficial to the country. And I do. Whether he does them or not, that's up to him.
Bill O'Reilly
How much does he listen to you these days? Bill O'Reilly? I mean, listen, when we did, you know, when we did our town hall on News Nation, Chris Cuomo, myself and you, there's no doubt that President Trump would not have called in if it were not for you. I've reported that on many, many occasions. We all know how far your relationship goes back with them, spanning 30 plus years. And I know that you were just recently in China, China asked you to come and see them and talk to them. And I'd like you to elaborate and enlighten my audience as to why that was. But clearly they feel, and rightfully so, that you have the ability, more so than most, to impact the thought process, dare I say even the actions of the president from time to time because of his respect and his longtime relationship with you. How much do you think he listens to you or anybody else in this day and age?
Stephen A. Smith
Well, I think he trusts me because I'll never burn him. So if it's off the record, it's off the record. I talk to him frequently. I never call him. That's an intrusion. I'm a journalist. That's not my job. But when he gets in touch with me, I'm obviously respectful as I was to Barack Obama, who did that as well, not as much as Trump, but he did, George W. Bush did, and I answer honestly. So on the China situation, I was invited over there because they watch, the Politburo watches me on YouTube. Exactly what we're doing now, the Chinese people can't see YouTube, by the way. They knock it out for, but they watch. And as you rightly assess, they know that I speak with Donald Trump a lot. So they wanted to know about him. And it was an off the record conversation. But I did tell the POLITBURO There were 13 of them in the Q and A in Beijing. I'm going to have to debrief the President when I get back. So I'm always up front. I like you. I mean, I'm up front. And they said, okay, you know, I said, I can't come over there and do a Q and A with you for an hour and 45 minutes and not tell the President of the United States what it was about. You know, come on, I'll be deported myself. They'll deport me back to Ireland. So I gotta tell them. And I did. And then three days later, there was a phone call with Xi. So I could take credit for that, but I'm not going to. But I think that my conversation with the Chinese Communists was beneficial. So I calmed them down in certain areas and I illuminated the President's thinking process and others. So after the hour, 45 minutes, they had a much better understanding of where Donald Trump is coming from. The second thing is we had dinner afterward. My son, myself, the man who put this together in Beijing, the richest man in China, and his assistant, who were only supposed to be four, but we were joined by the second most powerful man in the country for dinner, which was an amazing experience. I'll tell you why. My son's sitting there, he's 21 years old, and he's listening to the highest level of diplomacy there could possibly be in the biggest story in the world. China USA relations is the biggest story in the world by far. Because if that doesn't work out, there's going to be vast trouble. If it does work out, if they follow my guidelines to a partnership for peace and prosperity. And that's why I went over there to tell him what that was about, then the world will calm down and everyone will be better off. So there's my son, 21, political science major, listening to his father and 13 of the Politburo members. You can imagine that it's like being in the nick locker room at halftime, I guess. But anyway, look, I love my country. I try to do what's best, as far as I see it. And I was stunned by this whole thing. I didn't solicit this. It came to me.
Bill O'Reilly
Absolutely. And I know you're telling the truth about that. Shoot. I consider you an honest broker. Regardless of how people try to attack you or whatever. You've always been a straight shooter with me. I've seen you talking to politicians on both sides of the aisle right in front of my face, getting on both of them like hell and fury, for crying out loud. So I've had an eyewitness account to that. But. But let me get back to you before I get back to the States. You said that when you were in China, you talked about your guidelines to peace and prosperity between themselves and the United States of America. Would you mind sharing with this audience what those guidelines were, some of those guidelines that you doled out to them.
Stephen A. Smith
So the past six months, I've been working on a policy called a Partnership for Peace and Prosperity between the United States of America and China. And essentially what it says is that the two greatest powers in the world are going to ally together to tamp down chaos and misbehavior all over the world. So we're going to ally now. We're never going to agree with them about Communism. And it's a police state. It's the most sophisticated police state in the history of mankind. It makes the Nazi regime look like benevolent people. That's how tight the Chinese Communists are on their 1.5 billion people. Americans have no idea. You got to carry an ID card every second of your life. In China, if you don't, you're in prison. If somebody stops you and there are cops on every corner and ask for your id, you're a Chinese citizen and you don't have it gone. It is really unbelievable. So anyway, the peace and partnership prosperity thing says that we're going to work it out as far as trade. We'll help China feed their 1.5 billion. They'll help us and our economy, and then we will hamp down crazy stuff like the mullahs in Iran. So if China and the United States ally against the mullahs, they can't do anything. Same thing with Putin. If China were to say, hey, Vlad, get out of there, or we're going to start to fund the Ukrainian government as well. Vlad would have to get out of there now. It's a matter of self interest. I understand But I laid out a pretty solid case and I said if that partnership comes, you're going to get a lot of benefit. The Chinese government will get a lot of economic benefit from it. So I'm hoping they consider it.
Bill O'Reilly
You know, I'm going to get back to the States because even though I know China and US Relations is a huge, huge deal, no question about that, some of the immediate issues going on in this country obviously can't be ignored at this particular moment in time. You saw and you've saw that. You've been all over the news about the political, political shooting that took place this weekend. Vance Bolter was arrested as the suspected shooter of former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband. He also critically wounded Senator John Hoffman and his wife, both out of Minnesota. Of course, he was captured late Sunday following a two day manhunt. Following the killing, Republican Utah Senator Mike Lee tweeted, quote, this is what happens when Marxists don't get their way, end quote. So, Bill O'Reilly, I ask you, concerned at all that civility in America is gone. You've been around a long time. You would know the answer to that question. Your thoughts?
Stephen A. Smith
Yeah, you keep saying I've been around a long time. It only goes back to US Grant there, Stephen A. So come on. Foolish, foolish comment by Senator Lee, who's not a, he's not a dumb man. He never should have made that comment. Get political assassinations in this country forever. And so is every other country. And these are mentally unstable people that do it, all of them. You can trace every one of them back and they're all loons. And that's what happened here. So to assign a Marxism to it or a fascism to it, it's irresponsible. I don't traffic in that. I traffic in history. Never going to stop it. It's impossible in a free society, even in China, as crazy as they control those people, you couldn't stop it. If somebody wanted to kill you and was stalking you, odds are they'd be able to get to you if you weren't Putin or Xi. We have unbelievable security. So there's nothing other than lamenting the situation. There's no solution to the situation. You are always going to have mentally unstable people who are violent and that's that. And you know, if I had a solution, I would put it forth. But I don't does it the rhetoric.
Bill O'Reilly
Amongst politicians going back and forth, although you're right, history has shown us these kind of things happen. There's always folks on the Fringes, there's always extremism that takes place place within, within every nation. This is not going to be any different. Doesn't some of the rhetoric on the part of politicians on both sides of the aisle, one could easily argue that contributes to some of this.
Stephen A. Smith
Bill, I don't know. John, James Garfield was assassinated and he wasn't. He's no bomb thrower. You know, McKinley assassinated. In our polarized society with an irresponsible media, a grossly irresponsible media, it's easier to incite, but I don't think it's easier to incite to murder. Right. Homicides. And with us, I wrote a book and It'll be out September 9th called Confronting Evil. Homicides have been with us since Cain and Abel in the Bible. I mean, it's just there part of mankind. So I don't attribute, I don't say, look, if we were all nicer to each other, would we have less violence? I don't believe that to be true.
Bill O'Reilly
So with that being said, I mean, I guess I'm looking at it and I'm seeing these no King protests. Do you think that that's legitimate? Is it much ado about nothing? Are the folks on the left just using this as an opportunity to play soil loser because they lost the election to Trump and that's what this is about? Or do you think the argument's on the part of the left with the no Kings protest and beyond? Do you, do you think there's some legitimacy to that based on what we've seen from the Trump administration since he's been back in office January 21st?
Stephen A. Smith
I think the protests are legitimate and I applaud honest Americans who want to protest things they don't like. I think dissent is a very important part of our success in America. But I always go to this, all right, so you don't like the ICE raids because that's what this was really all about. There's no Kings thing. So what's plan B? You're down with the Biden open border. You support that? So what do you have? What, what's your plan to supervise 14 million foreign nationals, 10% of whom are violent because 10% of every group is violent. So what's your plan to supervise these people? Then you get, you know, it's okay to protest, but you've got to have something to fill the vacuum if you want to be taken seriously. Right?
Bill O'Reilly
But aren't you concerned when he talks about immigrants or migrants and you hear murderers, rapists and stuff like that as if giving the impression that that's who he's targeting. When news came out just the other day that he, he pulled, he put a pause on raids involving the agriculture, hotels, restaurants, et cetera, because obviously it was affecting those businesses. Don't you get concerned about him or the administration putting out that kind of rhetoric, sort of castigating folks in that fashion?
Stephen A. Smith
Well, look, you can, you can overdo the rhetoric, but he got elected on it. So, you know, people were tired of seeing innocent Americans murdered by Venezuelans and El Salvadorans and whatever. So Trump said, I'm going to clean it up. And that's why he won. That's exactly why he won. So now he's trying to clean it up. But as I said, he should have a, you know, an apparatus to, to examine people who aren't in that category, who get swept up in it. So, look, I want social order in this country, and I'm sure you do, too. You can't have.
Bill O'Reilly
Yes, I do.
Stephen A. Smith
You can't have 14 million foreign nationals running around unsupervised. And that's exactly what the Democrats supported. Exactly. We don't want to stop anybody. We don't want to supervise them. Anybody asks for asylum, oh, yeah, five years, we'll see you down the road. Maybe you show up, maybe you don't, but we don't really care whether you do or not. Hey, that's the height of irresponsibility. We're gonna be paying for that for the next 20 years. And I mean that. Biden open border was the worst policy decision in history by a sitting president. The worst because it caused so much damage.
Bill O'Reilly
Why do you think Biden made that decision and the reason I asked that question. Bill O'Reilly. It might be a rhetorical question, might be a bit old, but I, I'm thinking about how President Obama was called the deporter in chief because he had deported at the time even more people than Trump had deported. Biden was his vice president. How do you ultimately become the president four years after Obama has left office and you implement a policy that was the complete, completely antithetical to anything that Obama stood for? That made no sense to me. Do you have an answer to that question?
Stephen A. Smith
I do. I don't think Biden was in control of his faculties ever in his four years. I think he was diminished when he walked in, he took the inaugural oath. I think his far left cadre who surrounded him in the White House, led by Ron Klain, put a bunch of paper in front of him and he signed it and didn't know what he was doing or the unintended consequences that would stem from it. Look, I'll give you a really vivid example of Joe Biden. This man, for his entire career, used his Catholicism as a campaign item. You remember that, right?
Bill O'Reilly
Yes.
Stephen A. Smith
Joe goes to Mass. Joe receives communion. Joe's a good Catholic, Irish Catholic from Scranton, Okay. While he's president, he comes out to support abortion without any limits whatsoever. No limits. The Hillary Clinton position, okay? The most extreme position on abortion you could take. Joe Biden takes it and promotes it. A good Catholic is excommunicated by doing that. However, there wasn't one Catholic bishop or the Pope, okay, who suggested the excommunication route for Biden because they were afraid to do it. One bishop in Virginia denied him communion. Okay? Now, how can a man who professes to be an Irish Catholic promote unlimited abortion? You have an answer to that question?
Bill O'Reilly
I have no answer to that question. It's inexcusable because it goes against one's religious beliefs. And everybody, every Catholic I know, would.
Stephen A. Smith
Say that that's the key to analyzing Biden right there. No one can answer the question because there's no logic, okay? Because he wasn't able mentally to make those kinds of calculations, in my opinion. And you will see, coming forth, proof of how diminished that man was from day one.
Bill O'Reilly
See, that's the argument that folks on the right would say as well. And I get that part. And then when we look at the left protesting Trump in this day and age to the right, it will fall on deaf ears because everybody's quick to look at the Biden administration, the policies they put forth, how it was supported, whether directly or through one silence on the left. And as a result, they tried to basically finagle their way through the administrative, you know, through his tenure, and ultimately assist Kamala Harris in taking office. And so when I see these no Kings protests and everybody complaining about Trump, that's one way that it's going to be dismissed from the right, but where it will be embraced by centrists and folks on the left, Bill O'Reilly, in my opinion, is that I'm thinking about Iran with Israel. You have people thinking about that. Yeah, we can end their nuke program, and as a result, they won't be a nuclear threat and we don't have to worry about a holocaust down the line, at least on that end. Okay, that's. That's a plus. They're talking about the tariffs. They're saying, you got pledges, but where's the real production. What has really, really happened with that regard? You talked about the war with Ukraine and Russia. That hasn't been resolved. There's still hostages with Hamas, and folks are alluding to genocide taking place in a Gaza Strip because of Netanyahu and some of the actions that he has taken to just completely obliterate Hamas, Hezbollah, and everybody else in between. In the end, what it comes down to, to me, Bill, is this. There's so much stuff going on with, with the Trump administration that's up in the air. The one finite thing you can point to is his position on immigration and the effect it has had. And to me, that seems to be his calling card. Let everybody lean towards that, because that's a winnable argument in his eyes where almost nothing else is. To that kind of speculation or skepticism, you say what? As it pertains to the Trump administration.
Stephen A. Smith
I think that analysis is a bit. Is a bit harsh. So, number one, the tariffs in the economy, you've got to give it a little more time. So next week will be six months that Trump's been in office. It seems like six years, I know, but it's only six months. And to turn the entire industrial economy around in this country, kind of take a year or so. But it's trending in the right direction, particularly if Trump and Xi can come to an economic deal, then all the other deals will follow, and Donald Trump knows that. Okay. On the Gaza front, Trump has been a dove on that. He has done everything he can to try to get Hamas to release the hostages and take the pressure off so the Israeli army doesn't go in and continue to pound the place. But the Hamas people will not do it. So you can't blame Trump for that. On Ukraine, he has given Putin every opportunity to be a human being. Unfortunately, Putin is psychotic. Putin is on the COVID of my upcoming book, Confronting Evil. Okay. He is not a person that you can deal with rationally. Trump thought he was because he had four years of Putin not really misbehaving in his first term. But now, for whatever reason, Putin's out of control. Can you get him back under control? Maybe. Particularly if China would help. But right now, that's a miscalculation. So I think that people who hate Trump, who say he's failing on every front, aren't being fed. Need to let this unfold for a few more months. In March of 26, if the economy is wobbling and there's unrest all over the world, the Republicans are done in the midterms. They will lose. Trump knows that last couple of questions.
Bill O'Reilly
While I let you get on out of here and thank you so much for your time. Real quick. Over the course of his presidency, President Trump released cryptocurrency gold sneakers and watches. And now he's reportedly releasing the T1 Trump smartphone with limited plan price at $47.45 per month via AT&T, Verizon and T Mobile in August that's being built in the United States. First of all, Bill O'Reilly, I mean, what do you think about this? And secondly, are you getting one of these phones or do you have a problem with the president monetizing the office?
Stephen A. Smith
Yeah, I'm getting three of these phones, giving one to you for Christmas, one to Cuomo for Christmas. And look, do I approve of this? No. Do I understand what's going on? Yes. So Trump doesn't have anything to do with the Trump Organization. It's run by his two sons, Don Jr. And Eric. They are exploiting the hell out of their father's success for monetary gain. Now, all presidents do it to a certain extent. The Biden family did it with subterfuge. Remember that? We didn't know what was going on and foreign countries were involved. This is basically, hey, we're famous, my father's powerful, so you buy our phone. Now, Trump doesn't have anything to do with that because he had to sign off all his holdings to his son. I'm sure when he gets out of office, he'll be back. But there's a private club in D.C. it goes on and on and on. But every single president with the, with the exception of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, wasn't too much because when Reagan left office, he was in their throes of dementia. But every single other president capitalized monetarily on their position. You know how much Barack Obama gets for a speech? You know how much?
Bill O'Reilly
No.
Stephen A. Smith
350,000 prefi. He gets more than you get for a speech, Stephen. Eh, I mean, I'd be outraged if I were you, but he gets more than you get. So I'm not. That doesn't bother me in the sense that, and I'm not a bad behavior, point to other bad behavior kind of guy. But this is our system. We're capitalists here. And the Trump people are exploiting their game.
Bill O'Reilly
Last question. You know, Donald Trump is unapologetic about playing to his base. People will be quick to say he's doing what he promised he would do, et cetera. Do you think that's going to be enough for the gop? To win the midterms, or do you think that's enough for the GOP to win the election in 2028 if he continues on the path that he is going on? Or does there need to be some alterations in Europe as far as you can see?
Stephen A. Smith
Well, if you base it on history, which I always do, the economy will tell who's going to win the midterms. So as I said, economy is, is rolling along. Next spring, Republicans will do very well because that's everything to the American people. They are nervous. Lots of them don't have any money. They need the economy to be robust. And that will that far and away. You know, I say China, USA is the biggest story in the world, and it is. But for our electoral situation, the economy dominates. So Trump is a dice roller. He doesn't play it safe. He's going, he wants to be one of the greatest presidents. He wants to be on Mount Rushmore. He can't be on Mount Rushmore to buy his own mountain and put his face up there, but he wants to be one of the greatest. And he always, because I wrote confronting the presidency, he's always there. Where am I now? Where am I now? I go, it's still incomplete, Mr. President, you had a good first term. And he did. But now a lot of turbulence. He goes, oh, it's gonna work out. And he believes it will work out fervently. He believes it. There's no insecurity on his part. Okay. Whether it will or not, of course, no one knows but God.
Bill O'Reilly
The one and only Bill O'Reilly. Appreciate you, my man. As always, thank you so much for your time. Billorolly.com Best selling author, political commentator extraordinaire. I always appreciate the education, my man. Thank you so much, man. I'll talk to you soon. All right.
Stephen A. Smith
All right. Good question. Stephen A. Thanks for having me in.
Bill O'Reilly
Well, you know, the fact that you said it's good questions makes me feel good inside. It really, really does, Bill. I know I'm on the right track. Thanks a lot, buddy. I appreciate you.
Stephen A. Smith
See you soon.
Bill O'Reilly
All right.
Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's Oral Care Month, which means you can earn four times points on all your favorite oral care brands. Now through July 15, shop in store or online for items like Colgate Toothpaste, Listerine Mouthwash, Crest Mouthwash or toothpaste. Sensodyne Toothpaste, hello, toothpaste or gum flossers and earn four times points. Points can be redeemed for future discounts on gas or groceries. Offer ends July 15. Restrictions apply. Offers may vary. Visit albertsons or safeway.com for more details.
Bill O'Reilly
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Stephen A. Smith
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Bill O'Reilly
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Stephen A. Smith
This is an iHeart podcast.
Podcast Summary: The Stephen A. Smith Show
Episode: Interview Only: Stephen A Confronts Bill O'Reilly about No Kings Protest, Military Parade, and ICE Raids
Release Date: June 18, 2025
Hosts: Stephen A. Smith and Bill O'Reilly
Produced by: iHeartPodcasts
In this compelling episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show, host Stephen A. Smith engages in a deep and unfiltered conversation with conservative political commentator and author Bill O'Reilly. The discussion delves into pressing issues surrounding the Trump administration, including widespread protests, military parades, immigration policies, and the broader state of political discourse in America.
The conversation kicks off with Stephen A. Smith addressing the recent "No Kings" protests juxtaposed against military parades celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army and President Trump's 79th birthday.
Stephen A. Smith provides his perspective on the protests, stating:
"The no king demonstrations were no surprise to any of us who understand how much fury there is on the left that Donald Trump is president. [...] So when a mass demonstration is called for, you're going to get a pretty good turnout."
(05:20)
O'Reilly probes whether these parades are being used as a distraction from other administration challenges, such as tariffs, ICE raids, and international conflicts. Smith counters by emphasizing that Trump's actions are celebratory and not intentionally distractionary:
"I don't see it that way. It's celebratory. Trump wants to celebrate his position and so he uses his power to do that."
(05:20)
A significant portion of the discussion centers on international relations, particularly between China and the United States. Smith shares insights from his recent interactions with Chinese policymakers, highlighting his efforts to foster a "Partnership for Peace and Prosperity."
He elaborates:
"The peace and partnership prosperity thing says that we're going to work it out as far as trade. We'll help China feed their 1.5 billion. They'll help us and our economy, and then we will hamper down crazy stuff like the mullahs in Iran."
(11:52)
Smith underscores the importance of economic collaboration to address global issues, positioning China and the U.S. as pivotal players in maintaining international stability.
Immigration remains a focal point of the discussion, with both hosts scrutinizing the Trump administration's ICE raids and border policies. Smith advocates for a more humane approach, suggesting mechanisms to protect non-criminal migrants with family ties in the U.S.:
"If you have three kids at home, all of whom are American citizens, but you are not, that would be under humane. So they would let you out and not deport you."
(06:55)
O'Reilly raises concerns about the administration's rhetoric towards immigrants, referencing recent pauses in raids affecting businesses:
"Don't you get concerned about him or the administration putting out that kind of rhetoric, sort of castigating folks in that fashion?"
(19:40)
Smith defends Trump's approach, arguing that the administration was elected to clean up immigration issues:
"Trump says, I'm going to clean it up. And that's exactly why he won. That's why he won."
(20:25)
The hosts shift focus to the recent political shooting involving former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Senator John Hoffman. O'Reilly questions the erosion of civility in American politics, while Smith offers a historical perspective:
"Every one of them back and they're all loons. [...] It's impossible in a free society, even in China, as crazy as they control those people, you couldn't stop it."
(17:40)
Smith emphasizes that political violence is a recurring issue, not inherently tied to current political rhetoric:
"Homicides have been with us since Cain and Abel in the Bible. I mean, it's just part of mankind."
(17:40)
A significant segment critiques President Joe Biden's administration, particularly questioning his consistency with Catholic values and immigration policies. Smith speculates on Biden's mental acuity and decision-making capabilities:
"Joe Biden... was diminished when he walked in, he took the inaugural oath."
(21:41)
He points out the contradiction between Biden's Catholic faith and his staunch pro-abortion stance, highlighting the lack of ecclesiastical repercussions:
"Joe Biden takes it and promotes it. A good Catholic is excommunicated by doing that. However, there wasn't one Catholic bishop or the Pope."
(23:38)
O'Reilly echoes concerns about the administration's direction, questioning the shift from Obama's deportation policies to Biden's more lenient stance.
The conversation turns to President Trump's foray into monetizing his image through products like cryptocurrency sneakers and the T1 Trump smartphone. Smith critiques the commodification of the presidency:
"Trump doesn't have anything to do with the Trump Organization. It's run by his two sons, Don Jr. and Eric. They are exploiting the hell out of their father's success for monetary gain."
(28:49)
He draws parallels with previous presidents, noting that monetization is a common practice:
"Every single president with the exception of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan [...] capitalized monetarily on their position."
(30:19)
Smith differentiates Trump by stating that, unlike some predecessors, Trump personally disapproves of these ventures:
"Do I approve of this? No. Do I understand what's going on? Yes."
(28:49)
In assessing the Trump administration's prospects, Smith emphasizes the importance of the economy in upcoming midterm elections:
"If you base it on history, which I always do, the economy will tell who's going to win the midterms."
(31:15)
He remains cautiously optimistic about Trump's strategies, suggesting that although challenges exist, particularly with international conflicts and economic adjustments, the administration is on the right track:
"The tariffs in the economy... it's trending in the right direction, particularly if Trump and Xi can come to an economic deal."
(26:08)
Smith anticipates that economic stability will bolster Republican performance in the midterms, potentially influencing the 2028 elections favorably for Trump.
The episode concludes with both hosts reflecting on the multifaceted challenges facing the United States under the Trump administration. Stephen A. Smith maintains a nuanced stance, acknowledging both the strengths and areas needing improvement within the administration's policies. Bill O'Reilly commends Smith's balanced approach, emphasizing the importance of honest discourse in navigating America's complex political landscape.
Notable Quotes:
"The no king demonstrations were no surprise to any of us who understand how much fury there is on the left that Donald Trump is president."
— Stephen A. Smith [05:20]
"I don't see it that way. It's celebratory. Trump wants to celebrate his position and so he uses his power to do that."
— Stephen A. Smith [05:20]
"If you have three kids at home, all of whom are American citizens, but you are not, that would be under humane. So they would let you out and not deport you."
— Stephen A. Smith [06:55]
"Homicides have been with us since Cain and Abel in the Bible. I mean, it's just part of mankind."
— Stephen A. Smith [17:40]
"Trump doesn't have anything to do with the Trump Organization. It's run by his two sons, Don Jr. and Eric. They are exploiting the hell out of their father's success for monetary gain."
— Stephen A. Smith [28:49]
"If you base it on history, which I always do, the economy will tell who's going to win the midterms."
— Stephen A. Smith [31:15]
This episode offers listeners a comprehensive exploration of contemporary political issues through the lens of two seasoned commentators, providing valuable insights into the dynamics shaping America's present and future.