Trump campaign prepares for first visit to a black church

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Donald Trump is really really serious about his outreach to black voters (no he isn't, not one bit), and to prove it, he's even planning to brave the mean streets of a black city and visit an African-American church in Detroit Saturday, with actual black people in the audience. That's going to make it really difficult for his security team to decide who needs to be removed in advance.

He won't be attending an actual service at Great Faith Ministries, so he won't have to worry about too much of that funny clapping and "Amen"-ing those people do, like he's seen in the movies; rather, he'll be interviewed by Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, whose church is the base for his cable/streaming TV network. This will be the first time Trump has spoken to a primarily black audience, after declining invitations to speak to other minority organizations like the NAACP, the National Urban League, the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

”Mr. Trump will answer questions that are relevant to the African-American community,” Pastor Mark Burns, a surrogate for Mr. Trump, said in a statement. “He will then give an address to outline policies that will impact minorities and the disenfranchised in our country. Citizens around the country will see, as I’ve have seen, the heart and compassion Mr. Trump has for all Americans, which includes minority communities whose votes have been taken for granted for far too long.”

So it'll be another teleprompter speech, which will be delivered very carefully, but only the Seven Mad Gods of Television know what he'll say when he's taking open-format questions from Bishop Jackson -- unless those have been rehearsed, too. We're ready to bet Trump won't have to explain why he purchased newspaper ads calling for the death penalty for teenagers who were ultimately exonerated, then later suggested they were criminals all the same. Maybe Bishop Jackson will ask about the time the Justice Department went after him for racial discrimination in apartment rentals, at least? (Predicted answer: it was a long time ago, and we were not found guilty of breaking any laws.)

The Impact Network's announcement of the visit is very careful to note, in caps and boldface, THIS IS NOT A TRUMP RALLY OR AN ENDORSEMENT, so it would appear they've heard of the guy. It sounds like it's going to be a tightly stage-managed presentation, with virtually no chance of Trump suddenly pointing into the audience and shouting "Is that my African-American? Is THAT my African-American? THERE'S my African-American!" But you'd better be ready to hear about his inspiring trip to that African-American church for weeks to come, especially any time anyone mentions Trump's popularity among actual card-carrying racists. How can that bigot Hillary say he associates with racists when he actually went to an African-American church, where they loved him?

With this kind of momentum, we bet Trump's popularity among African-American voters surges from 1% to as high as 1.5% or even 2%.

[NYT / Impact Network]