What is Ja'Ron Smith's connection with George Floyd? Trump's highest-ranking Black official departs White House
Ja’Ron Smith, the highest-ranking Black official and top aide of Donald Trump regime, departed from his post of political advisor at the White House on Friday, November 6. As per reports, the White House confirmed that Smith’s departure was long-planned, regardless of the result of the presidential election.
Smith, who worked with senior advisor Jared Kushner, served as deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy and was first brought into the White House in 2017 to advise the president on urban affairs. He became the highest-ranking Black individual in Trump’s White House after the departure of Omarosa Manigault Newman in 2018. Smith said about his departure in a statement that it was the “honor of a lifetime” to serve in the Trump regime and called his exit “bittersweet.”
“When joining the Trump Administration, I set out to achieve the empty promises of the past, and I am proud to say promises made, promises kept. In four years, President Trump has delivered for Black America; record low unemployment, Opportunity Zones, criminal justice reform, historic funding for HBCUs, and the list goes on,” Smith stated. “This decision was made in consultation with my family (one that will be growing very soon with the addition of twins), and given the blessing of my beloved colleagues at the White House long before the election.”
Smooth’s departure comes three days after Election Day as Joe Biden nears victory in the presidential race. His departure also comes after Kushner made controversial comments about Black Americans in an interview on ‘Fox & Friends’ in October this year. In the interview, Kushner said Trump wants to help Black Americans but that they have to “want to be successful” in order for his policies to work.
Until now, there are no reports that suggest the reason behind Ja’Ron Smith’s exit, other than the fact that his exit was already planned after the completion of his tenure.
Who is Ja’Ron Smith?
Born in 1982, Ja'Ron K. Smith was a political advisor. He was an Assistant to the President for Donald Trump for domestic policy from April 2019 to November 2020. He has also served as Director of Urban Affairs and Revitalization from the beginning of the Trump administration in 2017.
In 2012, Smith took part in a demonstration which was against the killing of African American teen Trayvon Martin who was shot and killed by a White neighborhood watch volunteer. In that protest for racial justice, Ja’Ron Smith and a group of congressional aides pulled on hoodies and stood on the steps of the US Capitol in protest.
At that time he was the president of the Black Republican Congressional Staff Association and said racism is “a real issue in our country, and it comes from ignorance.”
Eight years later in 2020, Smith became the highest-ranking Black official in the Trump White House. In 2020 Smith worked closely with Jared Kushner and other staffers on Trump’s executive order directed at reforming policing post the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in Minneapolis. As per reports, Smith has been drawn into defending Trump in response to criticism of his executive order on policing.
A New York Times profile of Smith says, “Mr. Smith has emerged as a de facto spokesman on criminal justice and one of the authors of an executive order on policing for a White House where there are no Black advisers in the president’s inner circle. Mr Trump has taken to calling him 'my star' when they are together in meetings.”
The NYT profile says that people who know Smith said he took the job under Trump despite knowing he would be criticized especially after “racial reckoning touched off by the death of Floyd." Still, “he sees more value in having the relationships and having the access that he has, with so few Black people — or people of color — having access to this president,” a source told NYT.
The publication adds that many members of the Trump administration see Smith as a “happy warrior” who had stressed on policy and did not perceive it as his mission to change Trump’s attitude. “He is a focused individual, and he knows that he has priorities that need to be met,” a source said to NYT. “He has figured out how to get that accomplished” in the Trump White House. The publication reported that Smith’s friends and allies say he brings a vision to the White House that is otherwise absent. This is due to his colored background and life struggles.
More recently in August 2020, Smith delivered an address at the Republican National Convention in which he hailed Trump’s agenda for Black Americans. “Donald Trump knows that in the work of revitalizing communities, America’s strength is America’s people. And I can tell you — he really cares. But, more importantly, he takes action,” Smith said.