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Donald J. Trump met Monday at Trump Tower with select members of a recently formed “diversity coalition,” the brainchild of his company’s adviser, Michael Cohen, who called on longstanding relationships with some black pastors to form a group to rebut questions about Mr. Trump’s attitudes about race.

Mr. Trump has been criticized repeatedly for racially and ethnically charged remarks, including his call for a temporary moratorium on Muslim immigrants entering the country and for building a wall along the border with Mexico.

Darrell Scott, a pastor from Ohio, said that he and Mr. Cohen, whom he called “my brother from another mother,” worked to build a group of people “representing our individual unique communities.”

“The subject came up between us of our disdain for the mischaracterization of Mr. Trump as some bigoted, xenophobic, racist demagogue.”

“Ridiculous!” one woman at the front of the crowd said of such claims.

On hand was Omarosa Manigault, an original star of the television show “The Apprentice,” who helped herd the group into a cheering squad in the lobby of Trump Tower. She passed out “pledge” cards that the campaign paid for to collect signatures from people in attendance, although she later insisted the meeting had nothing to do with the Trump campaign.

There was confusion around the meeting, which was expected to draw about 40 people and mushroomed into more than 100. They all started at the Trump Bar on the ground floor of the building, and were then shepherded downstairs by the Secret Service, where they were screened for weapons before they went down the escalators.

They gathered by the waterfall where Mr. Trump delivered his original campaign kickoff speech in June. But no one was entirely sure of what was coming next. Reporters jostled with attendees to get closer to Mr. Trump and his allies. Eventually, just before 1 p.m., Mr. Trump came downstairs and gave a short speech.

“This was going to be a very small little meeting with a few people, and it ended up being a big monster meeting,” Mr. Trump said.

“You look at the other folks running, they couldn’t care less about New York. We care about New York, a lot,” Mr. Trump added.

Then he turned and started to leave and one reporter called out, “Mr. Trump, will you please come talk to us about this meeting!”

But back upstairs he went, leaving assorted members of the diversity coalition, or those who just showed up to support Mr. Trump, lingering in the lower lobby.

Two women began to harmonize the song, “I’ll Fly Away,” taking advantage of the acoustics of the marble walls. Others stood by the elevator bank, uncertain as to whether Mr. Trump would come back down. A French radio reporter interviewed Kenny Lee, a singer who recorded a song about Mr. Trump, who came up by bus from Tennessee for the New York primary on Tuesday.

But Mr. Trump didn’t come back.

Mr. Scott acknowledged that the shuffle of the group from one place to another had disrupted the flow of the event. The “escalator fiasco” had consumed time, he added.

But were people left wanting more after waiting so long for a meeting?

“They’re not frustrated,” Mr. Scott said. “They were in the room with him.”