Donald Trump has spent the days since the Republican Party’s midterm wipeout insisting none of it was really about him.
So when one of his loudest critics sat him down for a rare one-on-one, the conversation kept drifting back to Trump’s favorite subject: his own wins.
Stephen A. Smith came ready with tough questions about Republican losses, the war with Iran, and Black voters. But it was one hypothetical question, about a showdown with a very familiar face, that has everyone talking.
Trump didn’t need long to think it over. And the receipts Trump pulled out to back himself up? They only tell half the story.
Smith recorded the “Straight Shooter” sit-down in the White House’s Roosevelt Room and posted it to his YouTube channel on Nov. 12.
He had been publicly demanding the interview since last year, and Trump didn’t make it easy on him. Nor did he hold back during a White House dinner with Smith and comedian Bill Maher.
Things got testy well before the big question. When Smith brought up Black voters, Trump claimed he “saved” historically Black colleges and universities, then pulled out a list of his accomplishments.
“Read the list,” Smith told him. “I’ve got nothing but time.” About five minutes later, Smith cut in. “I want to get to a point, though,” he said.
“Oh, no. But I have three pages of this,” Trump protested, before needling him, “You wish you didn’t ask me to.”
Smith then fired back with his own figures, which showed the Democrats who came before and after Trump’s first term sending HBCUs more money than he did.
Trump waved it off, claiming “the money that they gave was stolen” and insisting both men “did nothing” for the schools. He offered no proof.
From there, Smith turned to the midterms, and Trump fell back on his go-to excuse for the election upset.
“I wasn’t on the ballot,” he said. “It’s a big difference when I’m on the ballot. All three times that I’ve been on the ballot, I won big.”
That’s not true. Trump has run for president three times and lost once, falling to Joe Biden in 2020 by about 7 million votes and 306 to 232 in the Electoral College.
Smith saw his opening. “You say you weren’t on the ballot. Let me ask you a question, Mr. President,” he said, brushing aside any talk of Trump dodging the 22nd Amendment’s two-term limit.
“If you could run for president again, so could Barack Obama,” Smith said. He then asked, “What would Donald Trump do if he had to square off against Barack Obama for the presidency of the United States?”
Trump went straight to his stats, claiming, “I got many more votes than he got.” He added that he holds “the all-time record” in both Texas and Florida.
“Are you saying you would beat Obama?” Smith pressed. “Yeah, I think I’d beat him easily,” Trump said. “I think he’s highly overrated.”
“Oh my lord,” Smith blurted out. “How is Barack Obama overrated?”
“I didn’t think he was a good president. I thought he was a divider,” Trump said, as CNN noted. Asked how he’d describe himself, Trump answered, “As a person that brings people together.”
Here’s what he left out. Trump’s Texas and Florida records are real, and his roughly 77.3 million votes in 2024 do top the 69.5 million Obama earned in 2008, according to 270toWin. But turnout has grown with the population since then.
Obama won 52.9 percent of the vote and 365 electoral votes that year, beating John McCain by about 9.5 million votes. Trump won with just under 50 percent and 312 electoral votes, edging Kamala Harris by about 2.3 million. Obama won the popular vote both times he ran. Trump has lost it twice.
Viewers weren’t buying it. “Boy u got them records bc of who you was running against,” one person wrote. Another said, Trump “wouldn’t even debate Obama, he’d be too scared.”
“Trump lives in such a fantasy world,” someone else posted, while another wrote, “Talk about Obama Derangement Syndrome.”
The HBCU list didn’t land either. “Bro he never even knew he had the HBCU advisory board until he read that paper,” one viewer joked.
It’s not the first time Trump has stretched his election record.
Maher recently revealed that Trump claimed he’d won the popular vote three times. “You won it once,” Maher said he told him.
Obama keeps creeping into Trump’s answers, too. On “60 Minutes,” he made a false Netflix claim about his predecessor, and he still hasn’t let go of Obama’s Cheesecake Factory joke.
For a man who says he’d win “easily,” Trump sure spends a lot of time running against someone who isn’t on the ballot.
