HBCU alumnus and ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith recently attended a private White House dinner with Donald Trump that also featured comedian Bill Maher and musician Kid Rock. In an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Smith explained his HBCU reason for attending the dinner.

Stephen A. Smith says he pressed Trump on multiple issues during his dinner with Trump pic.twitter.com/hg0zLHlnIg

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Smith described Trump as engaged and forthcoming throughout the dinner, saying he had a response for nearly every issue raised.

“He was talking a mile a minute. He didn’t duck any smoke whatsoever. Every single issue that Bill Maher or I confronted him with, he had an answer for. I would think the only thing he didn’t have an answer for was when I brought up the issue involving HBCUs.”

Smith said his main reason for attending was to make a point about HBCU funding, acknowledging the legislation Trump signed before raising his concern.

“Obviously, the FUTURE Act is something that he signed legislation into, making sure to mandate $255 million annually to HBCUs. I was making the point to him, Sean, which was my number one reason for being there.”

He then explained the concern he brought to Trump, that opposition to DEI may have made private donors hesitant to give to HBCUs.

“I wanted to make the point to him that, because of his fixation on his opposition to DEI, even though the federal government had allocated those funds for HBCUs, private corporations that are charitable and philanthropic in nature, throughout the years, to HBCUs had curbed some of that spending to some degree, because they were hesitant that they’d be targeted for engaging in racial prejudices and things of this nature.”

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Smith said he framed the issue around Trump’s own conservative, free-market principles.

“I said to him, ‘You’re a conservative in office. You believe in free market capitalism. You believe in less government and people going out there and operating within the confines of the free market to really generate revenue. Why would you get in the way, in any way, of corporations doing this, intentional or not?’”

He closed by relaying Trump’s reaction and what comes next.

“He took heed to that and said that was something he was going to think about strongly, and that he was meeting with his people next week to talk about that very issue.”