An upbeat Donald Trump swept out of a closed-door meeting with African-American ministers Monday, claiming he had secured endorsements from the group and appearing confident that he would win the GOP nomination.
“We have many, many endorsements that came out of the meeting,” Trump told reporters Monday afternoon during an impromptu news conference at Trump Tower in Manhattan. He called the gathering “absolutely amazing.”
Neither Trump nor Darrell Scott, the Ohio pastor and Trump supporter who helped organize the event, announced any specific endorsements following the meeting attended by about 100 clergy members and religious leaders.
“Some committed,” Scott said when asked about endorsements. “I don’t know the number. The rest are praying about it.”
Trump’s campaign initially had billed the event as a meeting at which he would receive the endorsement of the religious leaders, but his camp backtracked and canceled a planned news conference as some black pastors sharply criticized Trump’s campaign statements. On Nov. 21, a Black Lives Matter activist who interrupted a Trump campaign rally was punched and kicked by attendees. Trump said the man was so disruptive that “maybe he should have been roughed up.”
In an open letter posted on Ebony magazine’s website, another group of religious figures urged the ministers to steer clear of Trump and his “incendiary rhetoric.”
On Monday afternoon, Trump said the pastors with whom he met didn’t “really ask” him to change his tone. “The tone,” he said, “has taken me to first position in every single poll.”
He said the group had productive conversations about key issues, such as high unemployment among young African Americans. “I saw love in that room,” he said. “I see love everywhere I go.”
Earlier in the day, Republican rival Ted Cruz, who has avoided criticizing Trump directly, appeared to depart a bit from that approach. Cruz told a town hall meeting in Iowa that Trump isn’t likely to become the GOP’s presidential nominee.
Asked for his reaction, Trump said: “He’s got to say that. He expects to be. But I think I will be. I’m leading in every poll.”
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