ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith thinks Donald Trump has been “an unmitigated disaster over the last several weeks.”
Only a year ago, Trump, 79, thought the 58-year-old could make a good pick for a presidential nominee, but now Smith has blasted him as a “pathological liar,” claiming he “should be ashamed of his damn self.”
The sports commentator was speaking on NewsNation’s CUOMO on Monday night when he laid into Trump’s last few weeks, during which he has depicted himself as Jesus on social media, picked a fight with the pope, and has been tied in knots by Iran over the Strait of Hormuz.
“He’s a pathological liar,” Smith said when asked about the image of him as Christ. “Let’s just call it what it is. He’s the president of the United States. I don’t mean to get that way, but my God, the lies just continue to just flow out his mouth, flowing flippantly off the tongue with a level of just seamlessness that’s incredibly alarming.”
Trump has since deleted the AI-generated image and claimed that the depiction of him, wearing a white tunic and a red mantle, actually showed “me as a doctor.”
The 79-year-old president shared the image less than an hour after he launched into a bizarre tirade against Pope Leo XIV, calling him “weak” and “terrible on Foreign Policy,” in an unhinged Truth Social screed.
Chicago-born Pope Leo later told reporters aboard a plane to Algeria that he had “no fear” about the Trump administration, and that he would continue to promote peace.
Smith continued his tirade against Trump: “He posted the picture,” Smith said. “We all know what it is, and we all know how he believes he’s somebody who should be deified, even in his diatribe, where he’s highlighting fake news. What did he say? It points out, ‘I was depicting myself as a doctor, and obviously you see with my hand on the forehead, it’s me healing somebody. And I think I have done that.’
“This is what he believes about himself. And he has millions of people who have cosigned on that belief. He believes it’s them about believing everything he says. And at one point in time, a lot of us believed the same.”
Smith’s words may carry an extra sting for Trump, who not long ago said he would “love to see” Smith take a run at the presidency in 2028.
Trump phoned into NewsNation’s Cuomo Town Hall in April last year, after Smith had floated the idea of running himself.
“I’ve been pretty good at picking people and picking candidates, and I will tell you I’d love to see him run,” Trump said, adding he thought he was a “good” and “smart” guy with “great entertainment skills.”
On Monday, Smith was also astonished by Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s attendance at UFC 327 in Miami at the same time that Vice President JD Vance, 41, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, 45, were in Pakistan trying to negotiate a peace deal with Tehran during a fragile ceasefire.
“You’re sending Vice President JD Vance to negotiate, really, along with your real estate son-in-law, who’s excellent at padding his own wallet, but America’s still wondering when the payoff is going to come our way,” Smith said.
“Then you followed it up by pointing out how all of that was going on, while him and the person who should have been negotiating the deal, which happens to be the secretary of state for the United States of America, and who should be the presidential candidate for the GOP in 2028, were at a UFC event.
“Now you know. It’s alright for [UFC boss] Dana White to be there. But to have two individuals, in the midst of all of this going on in the Middle East, at a UFC event… at the moment you sent two novices to negotiate a deal such of this magnitude, on behalf of the United States of America, shows the atrocity of the state that we’re in as a nation right now.
“I mean, I’ve tried to be fair… and I’m going to always be fair, OK? When he does something right, I’m going to give it to him. But he has been an unmitigated disaster over the last several weeks. Somebody needs to call him on it. He should be ashamed of his damn self. He should be ashamed of himself. He really should.”
In March, Smith also laid into Trump’s Cabinet for their sycophantic behavior during meetings with the president, taking turns to pay him compliments.
“If I see another one of these administration officials fawning over Donald Trump, I’m going to lose my damn mind,” Smith said on Real Time with Bill Maher. “What happened to just doing your job?”
In a statement to the Daily Beast, White House spokesman Davis Ingle said, “What matters most to the American people is having a Commander-in-Chief who takes decisive action to eliminate threats and keep them safe, which is exactly what President Trump did with the successful Operation Epic Fury.
“President Trump campaigned proudly on his promise to deny the Iranian regime the ability to develop a nuclear weapon, and he’s kept his promise. The President does not make these incredibly important national security decisions based on fluid opinion polls, but on the best interest of the American people.”
