Stephen A. Smith: Trump Told Me in 2014 He Wanted to Run for POTUS if He Couldn’t Buy Bills to Cause NFL ‘Havoc’

On Thursday, ESPN “First Take” host Stephen A. Smith recalled a 2014 conversation with Donald Trump when he was trying to purchase the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.

During a segment about activist free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick getting a workout with the Oakland Raiders, Smith said Trump told him that if other owners blocked the then-reality TV star’s purchase of the Bills, he would one day run for President of the United States to “cause havoc” for the owners.

He advised that was behind Trump’s criticism of Kaepernick’s national anthem protest.

“We all know that [Kapernick] was blackballed, that he was treated unfairly, that his position on racial inequality and brutality on the part of police officers, some police officers, was politicized, and that the narrative was hijacked by the former President of the United States for his own benefit,” Smith outlined. “We all know this. One of the things that I pointed out … is that in 2014, Donald Trump wanted to purchase the Buffalo Bills, and when he wanted to purchase the Buffalo Bills — this was before he ever decided to run for president — Donald Trump called yours truly. That would be me. And he said that he wanted to purchase the Buffalo Bills. And I’ll never forget what he said to me. He said if those owners screw me over, and I’m just using the FCC allowable version, and he didn’t say it like that, but I’m paraphrasing, he said if they screw me over, he said I’m going to show them. I’m going to get them all back. I’m going to run for President of the United States. That’s what he said to me in 2014.”

“I bring up the relevancy of that because it wasn’t about Colin Kaepernick. It was him politicizing the situation for his own benefit to cause havoc for NFL owners who had screwed him over from becoming an NFL owner and being a part of their club,” he added. “Whether he’ll ever admit it or not, who the hell knows? But I’m telling you that’s what happened with Colin Kaepernick.”

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