Donald Trump meets with black pastors at ‘amazing meeting’

New Yowk – Donald Trump met with a group of black pastors for several hours Monday, calling the session an “amazing meeting” that went longer than planned because “we came up with lots of good ideas.”But there was no wide-ranging endorsement from the group, some of whom had said they were surprised when the gathering was advertised as such by Trump’s Republican presidential campaign.

Trump has been courting the support of evangelical black clergy members as he works to broaden his appeal in a crowded Republican field.

Trump’s ‘racially insensitive’ past

Darrell Scott, the senior pastor of New Spirit Revival Center in Ohio, said more than 100 preachers from across the country attended the meeting, despite criticism in an open letter in Ebony magazine from more than 100 black religious leaders.

In the letter, the group wrote that “Trump’s racially inaccurate, insensitive and incendiary rhetoric should give those charged with the care of the spirits and souls of black people great pause.”

Earlier this month, a black protester was roughed up by Trump supporters at a rally in Birmingham, Alabama. Trump said after the incident, “Maybe he should have been roughed up because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.”

Trump also drew criticism recently for retweeting an image of inaccurate statistics that vastly overrepresented the number of whites killed by blacks, among other errors.

Trump said after Monday’s meeting that he would not change his tone as a candidate, which he said had taken him to “first position” in preference polls.

“The beautiful thing about the meeting is that they didn’t really ask me to change the tone,” Trump said. “I think they really want to see victory, because ultimately it is about, we want to win and we want to win together.”