Muslim leader challenges Donald Trump to come to Jersey City

Flanked by “The Apprentice” victor Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, Donald Trump on Monday announced he had been endorsed by “some” but not all of the 100 or more black pastors he had originally claimed would endorse him for president.

“Unlike Hillary, I don’t go to sleep, I think about things”, Trump said. Bishop Hezekiah Walker of Love Fellowship Tabernacle church in Brooklyn said, “I also want it to be clear that I never had any intentions on endorsing Mr. Donald Trump” and would “never [have] been persuaded to”.

During his rally he also attacked US President Barack Obama, saying that history would remember him as a “horrible president” who “didn’t know what the hell he was doing”. He said there’s no video or photo evidence of what Trump is claiming.

A furious row touched off by a black American pastor who described fellow-pastors who met with presidential hopeful Donald Trump as “prostitutes” reveals both the toxic national debate about race and Trump’s own capacity to divide opinion. Reverend Al Sharpton said, “Let us not forget”. They included a fracas last weekend in which a Black Lives Matter protester was punched and kicked at a Trump campaign rally in Alabama, after which Trump responded, “Maybe he should have been roughed up”.

Rudy Giuliani, mayor of New York City at the time, said at least some people were celebrating across the river in New York City. That’s because several of them lead large congregations. Nevertheless, Trump looks to continue on with his approach with no plans to change anything that has put him in the “first position in every single poll”. “But political scientists have long known that people who are turned off by politics don’t engage (in) the system”, said American University political scientist Jennifer Lawless, according to CNN. Monday’s meeting was originally promoted by his campaign as an endorsement event, in which he would receive the backing of 100 black evangelical and 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”. The billionaire Republican candidate would have only a closed-door meeting with dozens of pastors for two hours Monday at Trump Tower in Manhattan.

“So we’re leading in New Jersey big, we’re leading in Texas big, we’re leading in Ohio, beating the hell out of this guy (Ohio Gov. John) Kasich, who’s bad, awful debater, terrible”, Trump said.

America’s black community is historically Democrat, though its evangelical Christian cohort is socially conservative on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, where Republicans are more likely to speak for their convictions.