Hostile Trump takes the stage at Black journalists’ conference

CHICAGO — Donald Trump came out swinging. And swinging. And swinging.

In an explosive interview before a largely Black audience Wednesday, Trump repeatedly went after a panel of Black women journalists and suggested Vice President Kamala Harris had switched her race to help her get elected. He defended his supporters who were convicted in connection to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

And the former president claimed to be the best president for Black people since Abraham Lincoln and refused to answer if his running mate, JD Vance, would be “ready on day one.”

The 34-minute talk — apparently cut short at the instruction of the Trump campaign — left audience members stunned.

“It’s probably the most unusual presidential interview I’ve ever seen,” said Terry Marsh, an assistant professor of media at Norfolk State University. “He seemed to avoid answering questions that are important to this group of people. His motive was just to explain his agenda. I’m confused why he came.”

Trump delivered his responses to the mostly Black audience at a moment when he and Harris have started ramping up their campaigns, holding more events and launching ads. But his blindsides against Harris highlight the stark differences between the two candidates: one, a woman with Black and South Asian heritage; and the other, a white man with a history of incendiary comments who has been criticized for his treatment of women, people of color and journalists — and sometimes all three at once .

Within moments of taking his seat on stage, the former president began arguing with ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott, who moderated the event alongside Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner and Semafor political reporter Kadia Goba — three Black women journalists, a demographic Trump has frequently attacked .

“First of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner, a first question. You don’t even say ‘hello, how are you.’ Are you with ABC, because I think they’re a fake news network, a terrible network,” Trump told Scott in response to the question “Why should Black voters trust you” given his past rhetoric about them.

He called Scott’s question “nasty” and said she had asked it “in a hostile manner.” In 2018, then-NABJ President Sarah Glover slammed Trump for “verbally abusing journalists,” calling his comments toward April Ryan, Abby Phillip and Yamiche Alcindor — which used similar language — “appalling” and “irresponsible.”

“I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln,” Trump said Wednesday, slamming the organization for starting the panel late because, he said, it couldn’t get its equipment to work.

Trump also wasted little time calling into question the racial background of the vice president.

“She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she turned Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said, asked to respond to Republicans who have called Harris a “DEI hire.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre almost immediately slammed the comments.

“As a person of color, as a Black woman who is in this position that is standing before you at this podium, behind this lectern, what he just said, what you just read out to me is repulsive, it’s insulting,” she told reporters during the White House daily briefing.

“She is the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, and we have to put some respect on her name. Period,” she added.

Trump then leaned into an issue he views as an advantage in the campaign, railing against Democrats for their handling of the crisis along the southern border, which he described as “an invasion of millions.”

He doubled down on that stance, arguing that those crossing into the country illegally were taking over “Black jobs” — which he defined as “any job” where migrants are “taking employment away from Black people.” He then deployed a recent line of attack he and his allies have trained on the vice president, labeling her as the “border czar” who is solely responsible for the issue. (Harris in 2021 was given a diplomatic mandate to help mitigate the “root causes” of migration to the U.S. from countries in Central America.)

Asked if Vance would be “ready on day one” — following a tough week for the Republican vice presidential pick — Trump did not directly answer.

“I’ve always had great respect for him, and for the other candidates too. … Historically the vice president in terms of the election does not have any impact,” Trump said.

Billed by NABJ as a fireside chat, the 1,100 attendees waited more than an hour before the event got underway at the Hilton Chicago on Michigan Avenue. Some listened intently with their phones held up to photograph the heated exchanges. Some snickered and groaned at Trump's comments about claiming not to know early on that Harris is Black. The audience grew ever more restless during an exchange with moderators about Democrats' views on abortion. And they chuckled at a dig at President Joe Biden’s age, turning around a question about his own age.

Beverly White Higgs, a retired broadcaster, said she’s “not surprised with most of what he said,” ticking off Trump’s riffs on HBCUs, abortion and the vice presidential pick. “It’s how he handles business all the time — freestyling with a loose affiliation with the facts,” said Higgs. “I think the three journalists did the best they could. ... He bulldozes journalists, especially Black women journalists.”

Asked if she thought the exchange with reporters was weird, Higgs said: “I think weird understates this man. The racism, the sexism, it’s not weird. It’s awful. Weird is a three-legged dog. This isn’t weird. It’s gross.”

Trump’s appearance at the annual conference had set off a controversy before he even took the stage.

On Tuesday, some Black journalists and others condemned the former president’s invitation to address journalists, decrying that organizers would offer Trump a platform. Others, however, defended the decision, saying it was an opportunity and duty for journalists to interview a presidential candidate regardless of how they felt about the GOP presidential nominee.

NABJ Co-Chair Karen Attiah said she would step down after not being “involved or consulted with in any way.” Femi Redwood, chair of the NABJ’s LGBTQ+ task force, said she was “disturbed” the task force “was not invited into conversations about hosting Trump considering the damage he has caused Black queer and trans people.”

“This is the single dumbest and worst decision in NABJ history,” Carron J. Phillips, a 2019 and 2020 NABJ award winner, wrote Tuesday on X . “Whoever made this call is an idiot. And I’ll say it to their face this week.”

Harrison Fields, a Trump surrogate who served as assistant press secretary in the Trump White House, called the interview a no-win situation for the former president and described the atmosphere as a hostile environment.

“This is consistent with who Trump is,” Fields said. “Trump is going to go to places that aren't necessarily his comfort zone, but he understands the value of having these conversations.”

Eugene Daniels contributed to this report.