Trump vows to fix ‘wrongs’ facing blacks
GOP nominee tries to boost appeal on Detroit church visit
DETROIT — Donald Trump swayed to songs of prayer, read scripture and wore a traditional prayer shawl Saturday on a visit to a predominantly black church in Detroit as he called for a “civil rights agenda of our time” and vowed to fix the “many wrongs” facing African-Americans.
“I am here to listen to you,” Trump told the congregation at Great Faith Ministries International. “I am here to learn.”
Trump has stepped up his appeals to minority voters in recent weeks, but the visit was the first time Trump has addressed a largely black audience since winning the Republican nomination.
Trump was introduced by Bishop Wayne Jackson, who wrapped a traditional prayer shawla round Trump and told his congregation that “this is the first African-American church he’s been in, y’all! Now it’s a little different from a Presbyterian church!”
Seated next to him in the front row was Omarosa Manigault, a former contestant on Trump’s reality TV series who has helped to guide his outreach to the black community. Also accompanying him was Detroit native Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who ran against Trump in the primaries and is now advising the campaign.
While protesters were a vocal presence outside, Trump made a pitch inside for support from an electorate strongly aligned with Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“I want to help you build and rebuild Detroit,” he said. “I fully understand that the African-American community has suffered from discrimination, and there are many wrongs that should be made right.”
He also said the nation needs a “civil rights agenda of our time” with better education and good jobs.
Unlike his usual campaign stops where he confidently has addressed mostly white crowds that supported him, Trump’s visit to Detroit on Saturday was intended to be more intimate. Some protesters tried to push through a barrier to the parking lot but were stopped by church security and police.
Toni McIlwain said ahead of Trump’s trip that she believes he has a right to go anywhere he wants. But, she said, it took a lot of nerve for him to visit Detroit.
Many black people in the city, she said, are still stung by his stop in Michigan last month, when he went before a mostly white audience and declared: “You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed.”
He asked, rhetorically, what blacks had to lose by voting for him instead of Clinton.
“He generalized the total black community,” she said.
But the risky nature of the visit was underscored by what appeared to be unusually cautious planning by the Trump campaign.
On Thursday, The New York Times published what it said was a script of preapproved questions Trump would be asked in his interview with Jackson, along with prepared answers. Jackson told CNN on Friday that he “didn’t see anything wrong” with clearing his questions with the campaign and hadn’t offered softballs.
For Trump, courting African-Americans is a challenge. Most polls show his support among black voters is in the low single digits. Many view some of his campaign rhetoric as insulting and racist.
Detroit is about 80 percent black, and many residents are struggling. Nearly 40 percent of them are impoverished, compared with about 15 percent of Americans overall. Detroit’s median household income is just over $26,000 — not even half the median for the nation, according to the census.
Meanwhile, GOP vice presidential hopeful Mike Pence is ready to release his tax returns. But don’t expect the same for Trump.
In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” which will air Sunday, the Indiana governor said he will release his returns this month. When asked whether Trump also will release his returns, however, Pence said no, citing an ongoing audit of the GOP presidential nominee’s taxes.
“Donald Trump will be releasing his tax returns at the completion of an audit,” Pence said, adding: “We’ll see” if Trump releases his returns prior to Election Day.
Trump has repeatedly said he won’t release any of his recent returns, citing the Internal Revenue Service review. But the IRS says all taxpayers are free to make their returns public, regardless of whether they are being audited.