Trumpf Trotting Out The Black Pastors Again

Had Trump announced he was being endorsed by Oregon's Pastor Pete Peters, Florida's Carl Gallups, Missouri's Dan Gayman or any of the other crackpot pastors on the fringes of the far, far right I might have laughed or yawned. But they weren't the religious figures the TV entertainer/American fascist leader has been tweeting about when he claims to have lined up 100 pastors to endorse his presidential run. With Cruz and Dr. Ben sewing up evangelical support in Iowa, Trump, who has cultivated a relationship with right-wing churches over the years but isn't a religious person himself, figured he'd have to do something so he didn't walk away from the Iowa caucuses in February a loser. (He's way up in the Iowa GOP polls right now-- with 30% against Cruz's 21%, Dr. Ben's 19% and Rubio's 11%-- but in a completely silly electorate like Iowa Republicans, anything can happen.)

When he was asked about his faith at an Iowa forum this summer, he referred to Holy Communion as “my little cracker.” Trump later told reporters in South Carolina that he still attends Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan. But the Dutch Reformed Protestant church once led by Norman Vincent Peale released a statement specifying that Trump is not an active member, although his parents were members for many years. Even calling himself a Presbyterian, the religion he was confirmed into as a child in Queens, has confused people who knew of the Trump family’s lengthy relationship with the Dutch Reformed church.

But one man of God says he does not doubt Trump’s commitment to his Christian faith-- Pentecostal Pastor Darrell Scott, a former drug dealer-turned-born-again Christian minister who has become Trump’s impromptu liaison to black ministers across the country.

...Scott stayed in touch with Trump through Michael Cohen, a longtime Trump adviser, and called when Trump announced his presidential run four years later. “As soon as I heard Mr. Trump was running, I called Cohen and said, ‘Let’s get the preachers in a room and saddle up the pony and let’s ride!”

Trump's camp accepted as he continued to step in it whenever religion came up. Favorite Bible verse? Pass. Old Testament or New? Meh. Best book ever? The Bible, followed closely by The Art of the Deal. For a man running to lead a party where evangelicals often decide the winner, Trump’s God-free candidacy was becoming a problem.

...[N]ot all in the black community see Trump as a potential savior or think the pastors should be meeting with him at all. Scott said he's been called an Uncle Tom, a sellout, and much worse since the video of the Trump meeting got out. “It’s funny, but it’s not,” he said. “I’m not trying to persuade black people to vote for Donald Trump. I want black people to make up their own minds, instead of allowing their opinion of him to be determined by hearsay.”

Backlash or not, Trump and the black pastors have another meeting set up for Nov. 30, in Trump Tower to talk about issues in black communities. “But knowing Trump,” Scott said, “It will probably go on longer.”

So... the Art of the Deal author (more or less, the author) offered some sweet deals to a bunch of black pastors and he has an even hundred giving him the thumbs up at 1 pm on Monday. They get to come by Trump Tower to publicly kiss the ring and, presumably pick up their checks. Trump wouldn't do that? Don't forget that he hired actors to play supporters when he made his presidential bid announcement. Presumably the pastors charge more.

The Republican presidential candidate has a private meeting with the group scheduled on Monday before they make their offer of support official, according to his campaign. The endorsement comes as Mr. Trump has faced criticism for stoking racial tension and has seen his support among evangelical Christians start to waver in polls as voters consider Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ben Carson.

That tension was evident this week after an activist for the group Black Lives Matter was beaten at a Trump campaign rally, and the billionaire developer said that perhaps the activist deserved to be roughed up. Mr. Trump also angered some when he sent a Twitter message that appeared to play down the recent spate of incidents of police brutality against African-Americans.

However, Mr. Trump has held several meetings with black religious leaders this year as he looks to broaden his appeal, and it appears that he has closed the deal with some of them.

Darrell Scott, the pastor of the New Spirit Revival Center in Ohio, helped organize the coalition of religious leaders and said that after meeting Mr. Trump in person he was convinced that Mr. Trump was the candidate best suited to be president. He also said that the public portrayals of Mr. Trump as a racist and demagogue seemed unfounded after they spoke.

...Mr. Trump has struggled to connect with some social conservatives because of his flashy lifestyle and the fact that he has held liberal views on some issues. But Mr. Scott said that he found Mr. Trump to be humble before God when they prayed together and that he had confidence in his faith.

Scott, a controversial businessman and registered Democrat who preaches a materialistic version of Christianity, says Trump didn't make "any donations to his congregation." And this isn't the first time Trump had these hustlers come by his NYC digs. 40 of them were there in September.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is using all the means at his disposal to curry favor with the Black community. This time, Trump had a meeting of prominent ministers who proceeded to pray for him. During the prayer, ministers laid hands on Trump, spoke in tongues and asked God for a “strong African American that will stand with him.”

To say that Trump looked uncomfortable surrounded by evangelical and prosperity ministers is a mild understatement. The groups did almost everything but anoint Trump with oil and sing an old-time gospel hymn. Trump has previously made statements about his faith and said that he is Protestant. But Trump also stated he never has asked for God’s forgiveness. “I am not sure I have. I just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don’t think so … I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t,” he said.

Trump’s blatant appeal to evangelical Christians held at his skyscraper, Trump Tower, is almost insulting if it was not so funny.  Forty pastors participated in the meeting, including ministers who shared their feelings about Black voters and Trump. “I think Donald Trump changed the opinions of the African American pastors that were in the room. They saw a side of him outside of the media depiction, and that they would give strong consideration in regard to supporting his candidacy,” said Pastor Darrell Scott.

Reportedly in attendance were: Pastor Darrell Scott; Pastor E. Dewey Smith; Bishop Clarence McClendon; Pastor Mark Burns; Bishop Noel Jones; Crystal Smith, CEO Joy105; Prophet Robert Scott; Pastor James Davis; Pastor Demetrius Johnson; and Pastor Lionel Traylor.

UPDATE: Trumpf Caught Lying Again-- Endorsements Not Coming

Trumpf-- lying again! Some of the pastors listed on the Trumpf press release claiming endorsements are of pastors who oppose him and aren't even attending his rally Monday!

Bishop Corletta Vaughn, the Senior Pastor of the Holy Spirit Cathedral of Faith in Detroit, posted a message on Facebook after she said her inbox was “blowing up with inquiries” after her name was included on a list of pastors meeting Trump.

 “Let me be clear,” she wrote. “I was invited to attend a gathering of clergy to listen to Mr. Trump on Monday November 30. I respectively (Sic.) declined as I do not support nor will endorse Donald Trump.”

“I was asked 2 meet with Mr Trump too but I refused because until he learns how to respect people you can’t represent me thru my endorsement,” Bishop Paul Morton, a prominent pastor in Atlanta tweeted on Friday.

...The Trump camp’s own announcement that 100 black ministers will endorse Trump has been greeted in the black faith community with a combination of confusion and anger, particularly after a week in which Trump has mocked a New York Times reporter with a disability, suggested that a black protester who was kicked and punched at a Trump rally in Alabama “deserved it,” and when Trump himself has suggested Muslims be surveilled at certain mosques.

Recent polls show Trump getting between three and 10 percent support from African Americans. Trump has assured his crowds he will win the black vote.

“The 100 pastors they say are endorsing Donald Trump? I don’t know where those 100 are coming from,” said Rev. Jamal Bryant, a prominent AME pastor based in Baltimore. Bryant, who earlier this year ran for Congress as a Democrat, said he had spoken with a number of the pastors attending the Monday meeting who were taken aback by the Trump announcement about the endorsements. “I don’t know what policy these pastors could mobilize around. I can’t find a strand of any policy he has that the larger black community would be respond to.”

Bryant said that he finds Trump’s larger message to minorities to be disturbing and troubling. “It’s a cross between Archie Bunker and reality television,” Bryant said. “It’s frightening and unnerving that the Republicans would be at this point with him as their frontrunner.”

The only pastor actually committed to going to the Trumpfist rally and endorsing is controversial ex-drug addict and big time hustler Darrell Scott, who has a financial relationship with Trumpf. Many pastors listed on Trumpf's poster were put on it without their permission or knowledge and actually oppose Trumpf and everything he stands for. On the other hand, Michael Eric Dyson's New Republic cover story on the right is just plain silly as well as completely insulting. She's better than Trumpf, Jeb, Rubio, Huckabee, Dr. Ben, Fiorina and Cruz and the rest of that crew of monsters; but that's about it.