The NAACP’s president, Derrick Johnson, spoke with POLITICO recently and weighed in on Trump, his administration and the state of race relations. NAACP slams Trump as 'racist'

Racial and ethnic tensions remain high in the U.S. one year after President Donald Trump ignited controversy by initially failing to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis following a deadly clash in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The NAACP’s president, Derrick Johnson, spoke with POLITICO recently and weighed in on Trump, his administration and the state of race relations. Trump has declined to meet with civil rights leaders, Johnson said, even though the NAACP has repeatedly invited him to address its members, both as a candidate and as president. (The nonpartisan organization has met with every U.S. president, as well as many candidates for the office, since Harry S. Truman in 1947.)


While Trump did meet with the leaders of historically black colleges and universities in 2017 and 2018, as well as with African-American faith leaders and the Congressional Black Caucus, Johnson described the encounters as “basic photo opportunities.”

The CBC’s chairman, Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), echoed the sentiment in a letter to Trump declining a second meeting in June 2017. Richmond, who described the proposed second meeting as a “social gathering,” said it would fail to “benefit the policies we advocate for.”

Johnson says he maintains a standing invitation to the president to address the NAACP, but he says he doubts that the administration has “any interest in expanding its reach outside of a small set of individuals who all look alike.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Johnson’s remarks and race relations in general.