WASHINGTON—Happy Black History Month, everyone. Have you heard about the greatness and persecution of Donald J. Trump?

The president of the United States held an “African-American History Month listening session” in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Wednesday. He began with a five-minute monologue that was more about himself — his campaign, his popularity, his alleged mistreatment by the media — than it was about African-Americans.

It was similar in style to his speech a week and a half prior in front of the memorial wall at the Central Intelligence Agency: conventional scripted statements mixed with a distinctly Trumpian improvised stew of boasting, complaining and rambling. This one elicited the same kind of offence from the black community as that one did the intelligence community.

“OH. MY. EFFING. GAWD. Trump’s Black History Month speech is an abomination,” Sil Lai Abrams, author of the book Black Lotus, wrote in a representative post on Twitter.

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Trump’s remarks bore no resemblance to the Black History Month speeches of Democrat Barack Obama, the first black president, or those of Republican George W. Bush.

In 2008, for example, Bush spoke at length, from a prepared text, about the horrors of lynching. In 2007, he spoke of the evils of slavery, the triumphs of civil rights heroes and the “character and achievement” of the black community.

Trump appeared more interested in the evils of the media and triumphs of his own.

His third paragraph, for example, started with a lone sentence about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It was followed by 10 sentences of media criticism.

Trump said King’s “incredible example is unique in American history.” Immediately, he pivoted to his oft-repeated gripe about a Time reporter’s erroneous claim — which the reporter quickly corrected and apologized for — that he had removed a King bust from the Oval Office after moving in.

“You read all about Dr. Martin Luther King a week ago when somebody said I took the statue out of my office. And it turned out that that was fake news,” Trump said.

“The statue is cherished. It’s one of the favourite things — and we have some good ones. We have Lincoln, and we have Jefferson, and we have Dr. Martin Luther King. And we have other (sic). But they said the statue, the bust, of Dr. Martin Luther King was taken out of the office. And it was never even touched. So I think it was a disgrace, but that’s the way the press is. It’s very unfortunate.”

Trump did not spend any more time discussing the other black icons he mentioned. About Frederick Douglass, the 19th-century slavery abolitionist and writer, Trump said in full: “Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job that is being recognized more and more, I notice.”

He did not show that he was aware of the nature of Douglass’s work or life. Neither did press secretary Sean Spicer when asked for clarification of Trump’s comment.

“I think he wants to highlight the contributions that he has made, and I think through a lot of the actions and statements that he’s going to make, the contributions of Frederick Douglass will become more and more,” Spicer said.

Trump, who spent years promoting a racist lie about Obama’s citizenship, is overwhelmingly unpopular in the black community. His latest comments were greeted with astonishment, alarm and anger among black Americans, among others, on Twitter.

Even former first daughter Chelsea Clinton waded in, suggesting she was speechless: “This is...this is...”

“This defies comment,” finished Susan Rice, Obama’s United Nations ambassador.

Attendees of the gathering — which Trump opened by saying, “This is Black History Month, so this is our little breakfast” — all appeared to be vocal Trump supporters. They included housing secretary nominee Ben Carson, former Apprentice reality villain Omarosa Manigault, pastor Darrell Scott and television commentator Paris Dennard.

Trump managed to turn even his introductions into an attack on a media outlet he doesn’t like.

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“Paris has done an amazing job in a very hostile CNN community; he’s all by himself. Seven people and Paris. I’ll take Paris over the seven. But I don’t watch CNN, so I don’t get to see you as much. I don’t like watching fake news. But Fox has treated me very nice, wherever Fox is, thank you. We’re going to need better schools, and we need ’em soon. We need more jobs, we need better wages, a lot better wages,” Trump said.

Trump did offer some words of praise for black Americans, saying, “Their story is one of unimaginable sacrifice, hard work, and faith in America.” Returning to his association of black communities with crime, he also promised to “work very hard on the inner city,” calling black communities so unsafe it is “terrible.”

And then he continued on his favourite subject: his own success.

“If you remember, I wasn’t going to do well with the African-American community, and after they heard me speaking and talking about the inner city and lots of other things, we ended up getting, I won’t go into details, but we ended up getting substantially more than other candidates who had run in the past years,” he said. “And now we’re going to take that to new levels. I want to thank my television star over here — Omarosa’s actually a very nice person. Nobody knows that.”

Trump’s 12-day-old administration has also managed to generate criticism with a Holocaust remembrance statement (which omitted any mention of Jewish people) and condolence remarks on the Quebec City mosque massacre (which his spokesman used to justify his travel ban targeting Muslims).

Here is a full transcript of Trump’s remarks:

Well the election, it came out really well. Next time we’ll triple the number (of black votes) or quadruple it. We want to get it over 51, right. At least 51.

Well, this is Black History Month, so this is our little breakfast, our little get-together. And just a few notes. During this month, we honour the tremendous history of the African-Americans throughout our country. Throughout the world, if you really think about it, right. And their story is one of unimaginable sacrifice, hard work, and faith in America. I’ve gotten a real glimpse during the campaign; I’d go around with Ben to a lot of places that I wasn’t so familiar with. They’re incredible people. And I want to thank Ben Carson, who’s going to be heading up HUD (Housing and Urban Development), and it’s a big job, and it’s a job that’s not only housing, it’s mind and spirit, right? And you understand that. Nobody’s going to be better than Ben.

Last month we celebrated the life of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. whose incredible example is unique in American history. You read all about Dr. Martin Luther King a week ago when somebody said I took the statue out of my office. And it turned out that that was fake news. The statue is cherished. It’s one of the favourite things — and we have some good ones. We have Lincoln, and we have Jefferson, and we have Dr. Martin Luther King. And we have other. But they said the statue, the bust, of Dr. Martin Luther King was taken out of the office. And it was never even touched. So I think it was a disgrace, but that’s the way the press is. It’s very unfortunate.

I am very proud now that we have a museum, National Mall, where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things, Frederick Doug — Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job that is being recognized more and more, I notice. Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and millions more black Americans who made America what it is today. Big impact. I’m proud to honour this heritage and will be honouring it more and more.

Folks at the table, in almost all cases, have been great friends and supporters. And Darrell, I met Darrell when he was defending me on television. And the people that were on the other side of the argument didn’t have a chance, right. And Paris has done an amazing job in a very hostile CNN community; he’s all by himself. Seven people and Paris. I’ll take Paris over the seven. But I don’t watch CNN, so I don’t get to see you as much. I don’t like watching fake news. But Fox has treated me very nice, wherever Fox is, thank you. We’re going to need better schools, and we need ‘em soon. We need more jobs, we need better wages, a lot better wages. We’re going to work very hard on the inner city. Ben’s going to be doing that, big league, that’s one of his big things that we’re going to be looking at. We need safer communities and we’re going to do that with law enforcement. We’re going to make it safe. We’re going to make it much better than it is right now. Right now it’s terrible.

I saw you talking about it the other night, Paris, on something else that was really — you did a fantastic job the other night on a very unrelated show. I’m ready to do my part, and I will say this, we’re going to work together. This is a great group, this is a group that’s been so special to me, you really helped me a lot. If you remember, I wasn’t going to do well with the African-American community, and after they heard me speaking and talking about the inner city and lots of other things, we ended up getting, I won’t go into details, but we ended up getting substantially more than other candidates who had run in the past years. And now we’re going to take that to new levels. I want to thank my television star over here — Omarosa’s actually a very nice person. Nobody knows that. I don’t want to destroy her reputation. She is a very good person and she’s been helpful right from the beginning with the campaign and I appreciate it, I really do. Very special. So I want to thank everybody for being here.

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