On Saturday, Donald Trump will sit down for an interview with Wayne T. Jackson, a pastor in Michigan as part of his tentative black outreach efforts — and black Republicans are fuming.



For one thing, they say, Jackson isn’t conservative and doesn’t support Trump. But Jackson also presided over a ordination ritual some time ago that became a source of viral controversy.

The video published in 2013 shows Jackson mounting two male bishops on the ground as part of an “consecration” ceremony; the video drew scrutiny, with some criticizing it as sexual, and others saying it wasn’t sexual, but had no place in the church. Now it’s leading some conservative black Republican evangelicals and strategists to question the Trump campaign's commitment to black outreach.

In interviews with black Republicans, several speaking on the condition of anonymity said they didn’t understand why the Trump campaign decided to go with Jackson, an unknown in black Republican circles. “We feel like they’re being ignored, that the campaign just doesn’t want to work with us.”

RNC strategist Telly Lovelace fielded a flood calls from black Republicans wanting to express their displeasure with the campaign's decision. Lovelace, two sources said, responded saying it was just that — the campaign's decision. Reached by BuzzFeed News, Lovelace declined to comment. A phone call to Jackson’s church was not answered and the voicemail inbox was full.

Jackson’s interview with Trump will be shown on Jackson’s Impact Network, which bills itself as as the only black “founded and operated national Christian TV network.” Jackson’s church is no longer called Impact Ministries International (churches often change names). Now called Great Faith Ministries, Jackson says he doesn’t support Trump, but that he owes it to his viewers and to Trump to allow him to address black voters. He told The Detroit News he plans to ask Trump if he is a racist.

Black conservatives have a litany of names they believe the campaign should have reached out to, including Rev. Gary Plummer, a prominent Detroit pastor who is the director of missions for the Church of God In Christ, and Rev. Roland Caldwell of Burnette Inspirations Baptist Church. At the same time, they understood that part of Trump’s strategy is to not spend the ad dollars in favor of free media like what Impact Network offers.

“You’ve got people in Detroit like Rev. Keith Butler who is a known entity national and locally, with credibility and credentials with Republicans,” said Raynard Jackson, the founder and chairman Black Americans for a Better Future PAC. “For the campaign to go with to self-professed Democrat who stated that he is not a Trump supporter of Trump is problematic.”

The selection showed the Trump campaign didn’t vet properly, said Rev. Ralph Chittams, the senior vice chairman for the Republican Party of the District of Columbia and an associate minister with the Forest Hill New Redeemer Baptist Church. Trump's campaign did not immediately respond on Thursday to an email message seeking comment on either the sentiment in this story or the video.

“In my network, our question is why would Mr. Trump, in his first foray reaching out to the black community go talk to this clown, the humping Bishop?” Chittams told BuzzFeed News. “To me, there’s no sexual connotation to what he did. But find me one seminarian who doesn’t think it wasn’t pure and utter foolishness that has no Biblical foundation whatsoever.”

Evangelicals have long criticized the ordination ritual, saying it had no biblical grounding.