“Let me just put this on you” as he gave Trump the tallit, Haaretz reported.
Advertisement
Trump said black churches “in the pews and pulpits” were the foundation of the civil rights movement and of the Christian faith, and urged the congregation to work with him to restore America’s once-prosperous urban centers.
In what the pastor said was Mr Trump’s first visit to an African- American church, the GOP presidential nominee swayed to gospel music, held a baby, accepted a prayer shawl and told the congregation that he was there to listen to their concerns.
He spoke at a black church in Detroit on Saturday and said that black people of faith are ‘God’s greatest gift to our nation’.
Trump’s visit was an attempt to reach out to African-Americans, a voting bloc that is ambivalent about his candidacy.
The Saturday’s event included Trump’s interview with the church’s leader, Bishop Wayne Jackson, for his Impact Network, the television network Jackson founded in 2010. “Now it’s a little different from a Presbyterian church”. “Jobs, safety, opportunity, fair and equal representation: We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton which panders to, and talks down to, communities of color and sees them only as votes – that’s all they care about – not as individual human beings worthy of a better future”.
Mr Nathan Liverman, 29, a Detroit small business owner said of Mr Trump’s message that “you could feel it was authentic, that it was to heart”. And those who seek office do not do enough to step into the community and learn what’s going on.
Striking a rare unifying tone, he added, “I’m here today to learn so that we can together remedy injustice in any form”.
Trump’s efforts thus far to attract greater support from minority groups have largely fallen flat. Polls show Mrs Clinton with overwhelmingly more support from blacks and Hispanics. Then he traveled 45 minutes outside of Milwaukee, which is 40 percent black, to deliver his appeal to African-American voters in West Bend, a community that is 95 percent white. At one point, the protesters tried to push through a barrier to the vehicle park but were stopped by church security and police.
Advertisement
While several members of Great Faith Ministries said they were impressed that he visited their church and are willing to consider him, others were sceptical of his motives. The question didn’t appear to have its intended effect, as many black voters dismissed the remark as “condescending” and insincere. Almost 40% of residents are impoverished, compared with about 15% of Americans overall.
