Iran Press/America: Ja’Ron Smith has served as the Trump administration’s director of urban affairs and revitalization since day one in January 2017.
His role in the White House expanded in April 2019 when he was officially named a deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy, where he has worked closely with senior adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Bloomberg first reported Smith’s departure, which a White House official later confirmed to The Hill had been “long-planned, regardless of the outcome of the election.”
While Smith has long been the top Black aide in Mr Trump’s White House, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is the highest-ranking Black official in the entire administration.
Smith’s last day in the White House was Friday.
It is not uncommon for White House and administration staffers to leave their posts after a full term, even if the president is re-elected for a second.
Many of them, especially ones in top positions, like Smith, can leverage their experience in the White House to bag lucrative jobs as lobbyists and corporate lawyers specializing in governmental affairs.
Over the last four years, Trump has developed a soft spot for Smith, calling him “my star” in meetings at the White House, the New York Times reported in a profile piece about him.
Before working for Trump and Kushner, Smith worked for a conservative-leaning economic advocacy group connected to the political network founded by Charles and David Koch, the US oil and chemical barons who are notorious for promoting free trade and other pillars of neoliberal capitalism.
Before that, he was a legislative assistant for Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the GOP’s sole Black senator, and Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio.
Smith had also worked for Vice President Mike Pence when Pence was a congressman from Indiana.
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