Black Pastors Meeting With Donald Trump: This Isn’t An Endorsement!

An announcement by Donald Trump’s campaign that he would be endorsed Monday by several black evangelicals has set off a holy war of words on social media between some of the clergy members and critics who noted that the billionaire businessman had only days ago defended the beating of an African American protester at a campaign rally. “But he represents the country we have become”, Bishop Corletta Vaughn wrote on her Facebook page.

Trump’s campaign scheduled an endorsement event for 1 p.m. ET.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

ClutchMagOnline.com earlier posted an advertisement for the meeting with a list of the black pastors that will be participating.

Donald Trump has been forced into a humiliating climbdown, cancelling a major campaign event after black church leaders complained that a private meeting was being billed as a public endorsement of the leading Republican presidential candidate. “Which black lives do you claim to be liberating?”

The endorsements would come a little more than a week after Trump stirred racial controversies.

The piece points to an incident last week in which a Black Lives Matter protester was tackled to the ground and thrown out of Trump event. “They told me, ‘I don’t know if I’m ready to endorse yet”. Trump later called the protestor’s actions “disgusting” and said maybe he “should’ve been roughed up”.

The episode is a reminder that Mr Trump’s support derives largely from white, working class voters and that he struggles to attract black supporters.

Pastor Darrell Scott, who is organizing Monday’s meeting, admitted to the Daily Beast that his invitation to the other pastors did not mean that they were endorsing the GOP frontrunner. “I am not officially endorsing ANY candidate and when I do you will NOT need to hear it from pulpitting courtjesters who suffer from intellectual and spiritual myopia”, McClendon wrote.