It’s All About Dead Presidents: Stephen A. Smith Officially Not Running For White House In 2028

After months and month of teasing a White House race, Stephen A. Smith said just a few weeks ago he wasn’t ruling out a 2028 bid. Well, that was then. Now is now, and today the provocative ESPN host insisted it’s time to put the “presidential aspiration to bed.”

It’s looks to be all about some dead presidents.

“If I have to give up my money, it’s not happening!” Smith emphatically told Sean Hannity on the Fox News host’s radio show when nudged about his Commander-in-Chief aspirations.

In a teaser clip (pick up a pattern here?) on social media of Hannity’s show tomorrow, the Trump adjacent broadcaster called “bullsh*t” on Smith’s public posturing on running for President. Cutting to the chase, Hannity said: “I don’t think you’re running. Am I right?” In studio with Hannity, Smith replied without missing a beat: “I don’t think I’m running either, ’cause I gotta give up my money. I ain’t giving up my money.”

To be clear, when Smith talks money, it is big money.

A year ago, the First Take frontman, SiriusXM host, soap actor, Monday Night Football and NewsNation contributor inked a $100 million five-year deal with ESPN. In fact, the cash side of the contract was apparently worked out in October 2024, according to Smith, but things like his ability to venture into politics and other non-sports topics needed to be sealed in the fine print.

With that, the versatile and super savvy Smith has been putting himself in the running almost since the day Donald Trump stepped back into the White House in early 2025. “My life is pretty damn good,” Smith told Deadline in May last year as he made his Law & Order debut. “Why would I ruin it by being a politician? So that’s my initial response. But, in the end, you never know what God has planned for you, so you just leave your options open, and that’s what I’m doing.”

On an August 2025 Real Time with Bill Maher appearance, Smith told HBO viewers that when it came to getting on the national ballot he hadn’t “ruled it out, because I’m disgusted with what I’m seeing on the left.”

A self-declared fiscal conservative and social liberal, Smith has said if he did run for POTUS it would be as a Democrat. So, if Smith really isn’t running for President and its $400,000 salary, projected 2028 frontrunner Gavin Newsom may be declaring today “Best Day Ever” in California.