Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. was an early endorser of Donald Trump. | Getty Jerry Falwell Jr. says he will be part of a Trump education initiative

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. said Thursday that he is still part of a higher education initiative for President Donald Trump.

But he said the initiative is different from the group he had been tapped to lead in late January.


POLITICO reported earlier today that a task force that Falwell said he had been asked to head after the inauguration was not happening. The college president, who was an early endorser of the New York City billionaire had said several months ago that Trump had asked him to lead an effort to roll back higher education regulations.

"The White House contacted me last week and asked me to be a part of a group of 15 college presidents to address education issues," Falwell told POLITICO this afternoon. "This is a White House task force and not a Department of Education task force."

Falwell said he's talking to different officials for this effort,"but we haven't had any substantive discussions on the issues yet."

The White House also did not confirm Falwell's assertion of his new role.

Falwell had not responded to multiple requests for comment for POLITICO"s initial story that the initial task force had been abandoned. A White House spokesperson said the administration had no announcements or updates on a higher education task force.

But an Education Department letter dated May 31 had indicated that Falwell was not part of a task force aimed at rolling back regulations related to higher education for that agency, and multiple sources confirmed that was the case.

Undersecretary of Education James Manning responded to a request for information about the task force from Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), avoiding any mention of Falwell.

Manning wrote in the response, obtained by POLITICO, that Trump’s executive orders calling for agencies to “reduce regulatory burden” would be “carried out through a collaborative effort by both political and career staff.” He did not name the Liberty president.

Falwell — who also claimed Trump had asked him to be Education secretary before extending the offer to Betsy DeVos — told The Chronicle of Higher Education earlier this year that the president wanted him to lead a group that would tackle “overreaching regulation” and micromanagement of universities by the department.

“There’s too much intrusion into the operation of universities and colleges. I’ve got a whole list of concerns. It mainly has to do with deregulation,” Falwell later told The Washington Post.

At the time, Falwell said White House chief strategist Steve Bannon had given him the green light to talk about the gig, even though all the details hadn’t been hashed out. He called it “very preliminary.” But no one in the administration ever publicly discussed the idea. Falwell stopped talking about it, including not responding to questions from POLITICO. He did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Caitlin Emma and Michael Stratford contributed to this report.