Political Tribune

Donald Trump, Opinion, Politics

People React To Trump’s Bizarre Town Hall Rant: ‘This Man’s Brain Is Cooked’

Stephen A. Smith had a bizarre exchange with Donald Trump on a town hall.

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“Stephen A. Smith questioned President Donald Trump on a televised town hall about the defunding of Harvard” is one of those headlines that would have sounded almost alien to someone hearing it four or five years ago.

But that’s exactly what happened on Wednesday night, when the cable network NewsNation held a town hall on Trump’s first 100 days, hosted by actor Chris Cuomo, with such guests as former Fox News stalwart Bill O’Reilly and ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith, who has himself been mentioned as a possible future political candidate. Trump did not appear in person at the town hall, although he did call in.

This led to a memorable moment, in which Smith asked Trump about his attempted shakedown of Harvard University, which the venerable Ivy League school has resisted. Trump, for some reason, gave an answer about Harlem rather than Harvard.

“We had riots in Harlem, in Harlem, and frankly, if you look at what’s gone on, and people from Harlem went up and they protested, Stephen,” Trump said in response to Smith’s question about Harvard and academic freedom. “And they protested very strongly against Harvard. They happened to be on my side. You know, I got a very high Black vote. You know that. Very, very high Black vote. It was a very great compliment.”

It’s possible that Trump had been thinking about Columbia University, another Ivy League school with which he has clashed, located near the Harlem neighborhood in his hometown of New York City. He did go on to say that Black people “agree with what I’m doing with respect to Harvard.”

The Harvard/Harlem answer drew some pretty shocked reactions on social media. Including one who posted maps of how Trump did in the actual Harlem neighborhood:

Photo courtesy of X screenshot. 

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Stephen Silver

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Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy.

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