Omarosa Manigault, director of communications for the White House’s Office of Public Liaison under Donald Trump, reportedly urged Trump to hire black performers for his inauguration despite his reluctance to give support to a community that he felt didn’t support him.
“He felt as though black people did not support his campaign for president, why should they be rewarded with an opportunity?” a source told the Daily Mail concerning Trump’s reasons for hesitating on hiring black performers.
But Omarosa argued the point, telling him that the “optics of a black-out would look terrible,” the source continued.
Trump agreed on that point but insisted that instead of hiring big name performers, they should instead look to “mediocre AA artists with a consistent following, but not a big name artist. Just ones who need the opportunity.”
But even though the Trump team approached diverse artists, many of them refused outright to support the incoming president, and even Jennifer Holliday backed out of the inauguration after backlash from fns, especially the LGBT community.
Chrisette Michele, who did agree to perform at the Inauguration Ball, has seen massive criticism and backlash over her decision as well, including from the likes of Spike Lee and Questlove. All of this, and Trump reportedly didn’t even meet with the performers.