When Omarosa Manigault — a spokesperson for President Donald J. Trump’s Office of Public Liaison — stated at a recent “women’s power lunch” convened by the National Action Network that she had “took over” the White House Initiative on HBCUs and “moved it to the White House,” some in the audience wondered what she meant by “took over.”
But Lezli Baskerville, president of NAFEO — an umbrella advocacy organization for HBCUs — says this is something that NAFEO had been advocating for some time since Trump became president.
“We found that positioning the Initiative in the Department of Education, under an executive director who reported to the undersecretary or an assistant secretary created too many layers of administrative red tape, and retarded important executive decision-making,” Baskerville said in a statement to Diverse.
“We opined that moving the White House Initiative on HBCUs into The White House would remove layers of administrative red tape, and elevate the visibility of the Order,” she said of an executive order that Trump signed in support of HBCUs.
“It would signal to the secretaries of the federal departments and to others the importance this Administration placed on HBCUs for advancing the agendas of this administration and the nation.”
Baskerville said NAFEO recommended that the initiative be placed in the White House, “reporting to a senior executive to the president.” She said NAFEO recommended that the person be Manigault “for many reasons.”
“First, President Trump knows and trusts Omarosa and solicits her counsel on communications matters as Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison, but also on a number of other things, including HBCUs,” Baskerville said.
