What Was Said
In August 2026, Smith called Donalds 'the real deal,' said they talk frequently, and said he had nothing bad to say about him. He also made the more provocative remark that Donalds was the kind of Republican who could make him reconsider his own party identification. Those statements should be treated as Smith’s personal judgment, not as a formal endorsement unless Smith explicitly frames them that way.
Context
Smith interviewed Donalds publicly in September 2023 on a program that explicitly discussed more civil political conversation. By August 2026, Smith said publicly that he speaks with Donalds frequently and offered unusually strong praise of his knowledge and character. That makes this more than a single campaign-season compliment: there is a documented relationship across several years.