President Donald Trump on Monday welcomed White House Deputy Director of the Office of American Innovation Ja’Ron Smith to his roundtable discussion on police tactics at the White House, describing him as “my star.”
Since joining the White House, Smith worked on the Trump administration’s Opportunity Zone program, the push for criminal justice reform, and the administration’s funding for historic black colleges and universities.
“One thing I’ve learned working under President Trump’s leadership, that we are not just about talk, we are about action,” he said at the meeting.
The president signaled his intent to advance a national plan in response to the ongoing protests after George Floyd’s death.
“We’re going to work and we’re going to talk about ideas, how we can do it better, and how we can do it, if possible, in a much more gentle fashion,” Trump said.
During the meeting, Smith shared his reaction to Floyd’s death with the officials gathered at the White House.
“You know, when I saw what happened with George Floyd, it really made my heart sunk,” he said. “It hit me to my core, as well as a lot of the other lives that have been lost.”
He also shared his experience with police officer, calling them “some of the greatest people I’ve ever met” and said that it was unfair to demonize the police force with a couple of “bad apples” in the system.
“If we want real reform that can change communities we will start with law enforcement, and partnering with them and not demonizing them,” he said.
The White House did not respond on the record to multiple requests for comment on Smith’s role in drafting policy proposals for police enforcement reform.
A Cleveland native, Smith was brought into the White House to be an adviser on urban affairs but has since been promoted to serve as the Deputy Director of Jared Kushner’s Office of American Innovation.
A high school football player, Smith attended Howard University in Washington, DC, and subsequently went to Capitol Hill, working for Sen. Tim Scott and Vice President Mike Pence when he was a Congressman serving as the House Republican Conference chair. Smith left Congress to work at Generation Opportunity, a non-profit organization funded by the Koch Brothers before joining the Trump administration.
Pastor Darrell Scott, one of President Trump’s closest advisers on issues affecting black communities, praised Smith in an interview as an “unsung hero and a driving force” in the president’s administration.
Smith is well-versed in policy, but he has also discussed problems within the police system in his public appearances.
During a speech at the City Club in Cleveland in December, Smith was confronted by a private investigator about racial disparities in policing.
“I think we have to rethink how we do policing and community-based policing specifically,” he said.
He spoke about the ideal of getting more policemen deployed in police forces who had stronger connections in the communities.
“I’ve always argued we need to have more African Americans from the community policing their own neighborhoods, community policing, but there’s been such a disconnect that many people I grew up around don’t want to be the po-po,” he said.
He told the group about how he was frequently pulled over by police in some areas after he bought a new Chrysler 300 car and said he sympathized with black men who felt discriminated against.
“There is a lot of unfairness, and we have a lot of work to do. It won’t happen overnight,” he said.
During the roundtable with the president, Smith said he understood why black Americans harbored anger or fears about the police but said it was wrong to demonize them.
“I think law enforcement is there to kind of thread the needle and help us and protect us, and not to be demonized,” he said.
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