ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said Monday that he was satisfied with President Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, arguing that the Democratic Party has long taken advantage of black voters.

According to a CNN exit poll, Trump secured 13% of the black vote in November—21% among men and 7% among women. Speaking on CUOMO, Smith criticized Democrats for depending on “guilt” and fear-based messaging rather than offering substantive policy to earn black support.

“They wanted to make sure, ‘Oh, we’re going to point to racism. We’re going to guilt you into voting for us. We’re not going to talk about the things that we’re doing positively. We’re going to talk about what the other side is doing negatively to engage in fear mongering to help you, through fear factor, go our way instead of theirs.’ And it didn’t work this time,” Smith said.

“And to be quite honest with you, even though I might not like some of the things I’m seeing from the Trump administration thus far, the bottom line is I’m glad it didn’t work,” Smith continued.

“Because I think, for the longest time, black Americans have played the role of suckers to the Democratic Party,” he continued. “They’ve guilted us into voting for them, making us feel as if we’re going to be ostracized, creating division within our own communities or what have you to get our vote, instead of saying to us, ‘Hey, this is what we will do for you. And it will work better than what they’re offering.’”

In March, Smith argued that Democratic Party policies conflict with the values of conservative Black families during an appearance on “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”

“A lot of us obviously vote Democratic, but we live very conservative lives. We come from very conservative households,” he said at that time. “Our parents raised us in a certain way where you can’t come into the home with that kind, with such nonsense when you talk to your mother, your father.”

“Somehow, some way, inexplicably specifically since 1964, I should say inexplicably since the civil rights legislation, obviously they’ve had the Democratic vote,” he added. “The Democratic Party has had a black vote for the vast majority of that period. But in the end, looking at all of those things, I just felt that it became a bit crazy and quite frankly a bit unfair.”

Smith specifically criticized the Democratic Party for neglecting core issues like the economy and border security, instead placing emphasis on social topics such as pronoun usage and gender-specific bathrooms.

By contrast, on the April 28 episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show, he praised President Trump for taking effective action on immigration enforcement.