Stephen A's Quick Hitters: Trump bullies Columbia with tariffs to get deportations. JD Vance votes, Hegseth’s confirmed. Tuskegee Airman DEI Ban. - The Stephen A. Smith Show

The Stephen A. Smith Show: Episode Summary Release Date: January 28, 2025

In this episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show, host Stephen A. Smith delves into three significant and timely topics: President Donald Trump's approach to immigration and international relations, the contentious confirmation of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, and the administration's stance on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, particularly concerning the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen. Smith offers his renowned unfiltered opinions, providing insightful commentary on each subject.

1. Trump's Immigration Policies and the Colombia Tariff Conflict

Timestamp: [01:06]

Stephen A. Smith begins his discussion by examining President Trump's aggressive stance on immigration, specifically focusing on his efforts to deport migrants using military planes. This policy led to a diplomatic clash with Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who initially approved but later revoked the authorization for these flights, accusing the U.S. of criminalizing Colombian migrants.

Smith highlights the tit-for-tat response from the White House, where Trump imposed steep tariffs on Colombian imports, enacted a travel ban for Colombian citizens, and sought to revoke visas for Colombian officials in the United States. This sequence of actions underscores Trump's commitment to enforcing his immigration policies, even at the expense of international relations.

Notable Quotes:

"If the President of the United States, because we're supposed to be a superpower... don't you like seeing somebody ultimately acquiescing to our wishes instead of it being the other way around?" — Smith [06:30]
"Desperate times call for desperate measures... It's about the fact that it's costing American taxpayers their dollars." — Smith [15:20]

Smith criticizes the focus on immigration as not merely about illegal border crossings but also about the financial burden on American taxpayers. He emphasizes the need for the U.S. to leverage its superpower status to assert its policies effectively, expressing satisfaction when international entities comply with American directives.

2. Confirmation of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense

Timestamp: [10:25]

The episode transitions to the contentious confirmation of Pete Hegseth as the new Secretary of Defense. Smith details the narrow Senate vote of 51-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote after three Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, opposed the nomination. Hegseth's confirmation is marred by allegations of sexual misconduct, public intoxication, and financial mismanagement.

Smith draws parallels to President Trump's own controversial tenure, suggesting a perceived double standard in political accountability. He argues that despite the allegations, Hegseth's military background and loyalty to Trump were deemed sufficient for his appointment, reflecting lowered standards in political appointments.

Notable Quotes:

"If you attacked his resume, there's nothing anybody could say... because he has served our country." — Smith [12:45]
"It's almost like you never learn. Y'all never learn." — Smith [16:10]

Smith criticizes both parties for ignoring significant allegations against political figures, asserting that loyalty and military service often overshadow personal misconduct. He expresses skepticism about the motivations behind the confirmation, suggesting that it aligns with Trump's broader agenda.

3. DEI Initiatives and the Tuskegee Airmen Ban

Timestamp: [17:05]

In the final segment, Smith addresses President Trump's ban on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, connecting it to a broader attempt to rewrite or erase historical narratives within the military. He references the Tuskegee Airmen, the 450 Black pilots who served with distinction during World War II, and how their stories were being omitted from military training materials under the DEI ban.

Smith contextualizes this move within a series of actions aimed at diminishing the emphasis on race and diversity in favor of a more uniform national identity. He criticizes the rollback of DEI programs, arguing that they were initially implemented to address systemic inequalities and ensure representation within various sectors, including the military.

Notable Quotes:

"We're supposed to be the richest nation in the world... but that's the latest example of how we're being minimized and pigeonholed and ostracized." — Smith [18:30]
"Trump can do this because we lost our way... he's somebody that's found a way back for a vast majority of American citizens." — Smith [19:05]

Smith contends that the abolition of DEI initiatives is a strategic move to appeal to a constituency that feels marginalized by these programs. He underscores the importance of remembering the historical struggles that necessitated DEI efforts and warns against the erasure of significant contributions like those of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Conclusion

Stephen A. Smith provides a critical analysis of President Trump's policies and their implications for both domestic and international landscapes. From immigration enforcement to high-profile political appointments and the dismantling of DEI initiatives, Smith connects these actions to broader societal trends and political strategies. His commentary invites listeners to reflect on the balance between maintaining national integrity and addressing historical and ongoing inequalities.

Final Thoughts:

Smith emphasizes the importance of leveraging American power responsibly and the consequences of policy decisions on both the nation's image and internal cohesion.
He calls for a reevaluation of priorities, urging listeners to consider the long-term impacts of dismantling programs designed to address systemic issues.

This episode serves as a comprehensive examination of key political developments under the Trump administration, offering listeners a nuanced perspective grounded in historical context and contemporary relevance.

Transcript

Greg Rosenthal (0:00)

What's up, everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal, and I'm teaming up with the king of spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll need this NFL draft season. From DJs mock drafts to my top 101, free agents will have it covered for you with all new episodes every Thursday, keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents starting on March 6th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Julie Swerbinks (0:30)

What's up, everyone? Julie Swerbinks here, along with former NHL player Nate Thompson.

Nate Thompson (0:35)

We're doing a new podcast together. Here we go.

Julie Swerbinks (0:38)

The name Energy Line with Nate and jsb.

Nate Thompson (0:41)

Each week we'll get together and talk about hockey life. All topics are fair game, right?

Julie Swerbinks (0:46)

Exactly. And you'll never know who will drop by to join us.

Nate Thompson (0:50)

Julia's pretty well connected. She has text threads going that you wouldn't believe.

Julie Swerbinks (0:55)

Listen to Energy Line with Nate and JSP on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Nate Thompson (1:06)

Here's the deal. The man was impeached twice. He was convicted on 34 felony camps. And the American people still said he's closer to normal than what we. Exactly. That's what they're saying. He's closer to normal. Why? Because something that pertains when you talk about the transgender community, for example, and you're talking about the issues that pertain to less than 1% of the population the Democratic Party came across as if that was a priority more so than the other issues. And so he comes into office now you're talking about child, you know, you know, childbirth, citizenship and what have you. He knows that's not going to pass the mustard, but he knows that he made that promise. So when he shows up week one on Capitol Hill and he says, this is what we're going to do through an executive order, even though it's going to be shot down through the courts and what have you, he's saying, I kept my promise. A lot of other things that he's going to point to that he's going to try. I kept my promise. Then you turn around and you look at the left and you say, what promises did you keep? That was a clip from my appearance this past Friday on Real Time with Bill Maher on hbo. And that's a perfect spot to begin a look at some quick hitters from Donald Trump's first Full week in office. We'll start with Columbia. Did y'all see what happened with the White House and Columbia this weekend? Holding true to his campaign promise, the president began deporting migrants on military planes out of the country. Well, on Sunday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro blocked those US Military flights from landing in his country. According to cnn, President Gustavo previously approved the flights into Colombia, but revoked the authorization once the flights were en route. Petro accused the United States of treating Colombian migrants like criminals, and that prompted action from the White House. Trump then ordered steep tariffs on all Colombian imports. A travel ban for Colombian citizens. He called to revoke the visas for Colombian officials in the United States and called to suspend visa processing for both immigrant and non immigrant visas. A few hours later, the White House said Columbia had agreed to a deal to accept migrant flights, including those on military aircrafts. The White House also said that tariffs would be held off pending its implementation of the deal. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're a United States citizen, tell me how you'd have a problem with this. Tell me how you'd have a problem with it. You got a problem with Trump. You have a problem with politicians. You can have a problem with their surrogates. You can have a problem with just the visual of what you see because you see so many people clamoring for times of old. You got problems, but you can't have a problem with this in its literal sense. What's going to be your problem? So you have immigrants that are coming over our borders illegally. The president, Donald Trump, after watching nearly 14 million people cross our borders illegally over the last four years, said, Nah, we ain't having that. And some of y'all, you're going back. You're going back. And when the Colombian president said, hell, no, we ain't going for this. Similar to what Canada indicated, similar to what Mexico had indicated prior to Trump taking office. The Colombian president tried to take that position. And then the next thing you know, Trump threatened 25% tariffs. So in the end, it's not just about the migrant. I'm not talking about that. For this particular story, I'm sitting there talking about, don't you feel good? If the President of the United States, because we're supposed to be a superpower, right? We're supposed to be the richest nation in the world, right? We're supposed to have all of this influence. We're supposed to have tentacles everywhere. We're supposed to be able to get things done right. Don't you like seeing somebody ultimately acquiescing to our Wishes instead of it being the other way around again. We'll learn more as we go along. I'm quite sure there's plenty of things Trump is going to do that we don't like. I'm about to get into a couple of things that I don't like right now. But that particular story, I must admit, it tickled me. I got to admit it, in other words. And then I love the whole visual of the story. It wasn't in the White House. They said the White House administration. That's what I just read to you. What they didn't tell you is that Trump was on a golf course, and while he was on the golf course, he heard about the position of the Colombian president, and they handed him the phone while he was on the golf course, and a couple of hours later, he changed his mind. You gotta like stuff getting done. We've got to be to that point right now. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Let's stop acting like the immigration process is just about folks coming over our borders illegally. It's about the fact that somehow, some way, they've got to be taken care of. It costs to feed folks, it costs to house folks, it costs to make sure clothes are on people's back. It costs to take care of them. And that was coming from the taxpayers money. That's why you got people in an uproar. It ain't just that folks are in this country, it's that it's costing American taxpayers their dollars. That's the issue. And when we absorb it from that perspective, understanding it from that premise, then all of a sudden we got to, if we don't have it already, we've got to develop an open mind about what exactly is going to work and what's not going to work to the benefit of our country. Why do you think you see people complaining about the war between Ukraine and Russia? You know why? Because American taxpayer dollars have gone towards supporting Ukraine. These are the kind of things that provoke emotion from American citizens, particularly in this day and age, because there's a whole bunch of people suffering right now. And it ain't just one demographic, it's a whole bunch of people. We gotta pay attention to this stuff. I gotta admit, I looked at the story, and when I heard the Colombian president changed his mind, I kind of chuckled. Yeah, when you do the United States of America, that's the kind of effect you're supposed to have if you are indeed a superpower. Just a thought. Let me get to my next subject. That's Pete Hegseth. The new Secretary of Defense for the United States of America. Hegseth was confirmed in a vote mostly along party lines, with 51 senators voting in favor of him and 50 against. Three Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, broke with the party to oppose the Hegseth nomination. That forced Vice President J.D. vance to cast the tie breaking vote. Hegseth was sworn in on Saturday to lead the Department of Defense despite a myriad of allegations against him that included sexual misconduct, public intoxication and financial mismanagement. Couple of things to get out the way. First, financial mismanagement, okay, Sexual misconduct. We've heard those allegations before and we know who we've heard them about. That would involve the now President of the United States of America, the 47th President of the United States of America, Mr. Donald Trump. So clearly the standards have been lowered. The standards have been lowered because obviously if he's in office and now Hegseth is in office, it's not something that a vast majority of American citizens, particularly those who voted for Republican, care to discuss or even think about. They're beyond that now. A lot of you are going to be out there and you're going to be lamenting the fact that they didn't care, but that's how it goes. Because you see all of this kind of stuff has been going on in politics for quite some time. You know, Bill Clinton, he was accused of some things. Liberals didn't care. Okay, all of us cared during the primaries and stuff like that. When it happened to Gary Hart, former presidential candidate, or John Edwards, former presidential candidate, on both sides of the aisle, we've seen this kind of stuff all the time. If you think people are going to care to the point where it's going to dissuade them from voting from their candidate in a binary system where you got to choose between one or the other, and it's not going to happen. Which brings me again to the Democrats on Capitol Hill. During the whole confirmation hearing, if you're Tim Kaine or anybody else, what were you focused on? If you had him shifted to somebody else, what were you really, really focused on? You just look at some of these things and some of the fights that you're willing to fight, and you're just wondering how tone deaf can you be? Because it's not like it's the campaign trail anymore. The President is in office. His selection for Secretary of Defense is Pete Hegseth. And if you don't want to, if you don't want him in there, if you don't want him to get confirmed, you Know what you do. How about attacking his resume? Because there's no one who can refute that his resume is worth attacking. I am quite sure that he has served this country honorably. You saw soldiers and other military officials in attendance endorsing his confirmation. Obviously, as a soldier who served in Afghanistan, if I remember correctly, along with other places, and has served honorably, his service to our country cannot be denied. So we ain't going there. I'm just talking about his resume. The ability to be a leader of over three and a half million people in the Defense Department, this national defense, and his brother's resume involves him being a host on Fox News, by the way, over the weekend. Not even during the weekday. I'm on TV more than him. But somehow, some way that qualified him, in Trump's eyes, to be the Secretary of Defense because of his military background, because of the fact that he's obviously a patriot in their eyes, should be in all of our eyes, because he has served our country. We should feel that way about any of our soldiers who serve honorably, by the way. You combine all of that with the fact that he's loyal to Trump and he spoke out against a lot of what his predecessor, Lloyd Austin, and others were doing with the Defense Department over the last four years, you could see what Trump's agenda is. My position is, look, y'all, it is what it is. Look at his resume. If you attacked his resume, there's nothing anybody could say. Because all you're saying to him is that, excuse me, if you were the President of the United States, would you pick you to be the Secretary of Defense? If your previous job was hosting a show on the weekends on Fox News and you had never led a department, let alone one, with three and a half million people answering to you, that should have been the focus. It wasn't because you had liberals on Capitol Hill that wanted to bring up financial mismanagement, public intoxication, and allegations of sexual misconduct. When his boss has the history or the documented history that's been on the books for years, and you actually thought that was gonna work. It's almost like you never learn. Y'all never learn. Let me move on to something more important. To me, anyway. The Tuskegee Airmen. For those of you who don't know, the Tuskegee Airmen are the 450 black pilots who fought overseas in segregated units during World War II. Their success in combat helped pave the way for President Harry Truman's decision to desegregate the armed forces in 1948. So why are we bringing this up? Because President Trump's ban on diversity, equity and inclusion DEI initiatives nearly erased their story from being taught to new trainees in the military. On Saturday, Reuters reported that a video about the Tuskegee Airmen, as well as civilian female pilots trained by the United States military during World War II, were no longer being taught in basic training at Joint Base San Antonio Lackland, pending a review. Well, on Saturday, the Air Force said the training videos passed a review to ensure compliance with President Trump's ban on DEI initiatives. Really, ladies and gentlemen, remember when the United States Supreme Court issued a decision outlawing affirmative action in college admissions? Remember that? You remember how conservative activists used the courts and social media to target workplace programs prior to the election? Remember all of that. Pay attention to what's going on. Remember when Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, brought up and challenged that there were actually good things about slavery and someone aright echoed those sentiments? Remember all of that? Why are all of those things relatable? It's a concerted effort to shove aside history. Even Trump didn't do that in his first term. If I remember correctly, he honored at least one member, one living member from Tuskegee. This is what he did. But suddenly he's in office again, and now he's saying, all right, let's eradicate DEI programs all over the place and let's not try to teach history. Why is that? We all know when all of this came about, particularly with dei, much of corporate America endorsed a lot of it following the protest that accompanied the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd in 2020. So remember at that time when people were protesting, there were riots in the streets, there were protests all over the place, people were locking arms, and white America was standing up. We want to hear you. We want to listen to you. We want to be sensitive to, because there's a of sensitivity that we lacked. And it was an opportunity for all of us to come together. But somehow, some way, they put in DEI programs. And although you had several people who were benefiting more from DEI programs or initiatives rather than black people, primarily white women as well, just like they primarily benefit benefited from affirmative action, it was black folks that everybody's talking to. You must have this job because of dei. You must have this job because you're not qualified. You must have this job because you're being assisted. You're giving a one up. That's why you have people who want the eradication of affirmative action, even from the black community. You have people who feel that way about DEI as well, because we know how competent and how qualified we truly, truly are. We don't want that being in question just because of programs like that. My response to all of that would be, fine, if that's how you feel. Let's just not forget what provoked its implementation to begin with. If black folks didn't have to fight for civil rights, it would have never been the need for affirmative action. They didn't have to fight for equality. It would have never been the need for affirmative action in the NFL, it would have never been the need for the Rooney Rule. If black folks were treated like their white counterparts in a culture profession of the National Football League, DEI programs wouldn't have been necessary. If there wasn't a discrepancy between the black workforce and a white workforce in terms of positions, particularly loftier positions, within corporate America, it wouldn't have been necessary. But we want to forget that. We want to erase that. And Trump, as much as you might be turned off by this, is fulfilling the campaign promise because there are constituents out there, a lot of whom, not all, but a lot of whom happen to be white, that are looking at these programs and they're saying, that's the latest example of how we're being minimized and pigeonholed and ostracized. Remember when Chris Rock joked about the insurrection January 6, and he said you had a bunch of white folks out there trying to overthrow a government that they run, and everybody laughed about it, but didn't it make sense? Show system, show country. You're still the vast majority in this country, the United States of America, even at 57 and a half percent, you're still the majority in this country. But somehow, some way, if you're white, you're feeling like things are being taken from you. And instead of us as black folks making that case and saying, no, that's not necessarily true, or this is why it was necessary. Instead, you had the attitude, hell with y'all, good for you. And so white folks responded, but not just white folks. Others, too responded by saying, there needs to be a change. That's why Trump can do this. That's why he can get away with doing this. That's why we can't say a damn thing about it. Because while folks are trying to find their way again, some of us lost ours, especially on the left. This might be foreign to y'all. As you sit here watching me speak about black and white, well, guess what? That's better than having to talk about he or she or they. Notice the difference. One affects One subject affects the dominant majority in this country, compared to 13, nearly 14% of the population. The other involved less than 1% of the population. But who was the left focused on then? You wonder why Trump can get away with this. He can. Because we lost our way. And he's looking like he's somebody that's found a way back for a vast majority of American citizens. I don't feel that way. I'm saying his voters do. And they're speaking louder than anybody right now. And there's nary a damn thing anybody can do about it. Live with that. Yes, left, I'm talking to you. Live with it.