He did, however, promise to stop talking about African Americans to predominantly white audiences. His campaign chief Kellyanne Conway announced he would do outreach events to African American audiences, including black churches.

Well, scratch the last part. On Wednesday, the Detroit Free Press reported that “Trump won’t be speaking to the black congregation at Great Faith Ministries International during the 11 a.m. service. And his Saturday interview with [Bishop Wayne T.] Jackson on the church’s Impact Network — which will not be open to the public or the news media — won’t air for at least a week after the event.”

There is no explanation for this other than pure cowardice. He is showing up; he just won’t meet in public with the congregants. (“Trump’s first foray as a presidential candidate into a church of African Americans was initially billed as a speech to the congregation to lay out his policies that impact minorities, followed by the interview with Jackson.”) He was rightly blasted by Michigan state Sen. Coleman Young (D) and Detroit’s mayor.

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Denise Horn, Hillary Clinton’s director of African American media, told Right Turn via email, “Today we learned that Donald Trump will bypass yet another opportunity to speak directly to the Black community. This comes as a surprise to no one. In every way imaginable Donald Trump has bucked the tradition of presidential candidates, including his Republican predecessors.” She recounted, “He declined the opportunity to speak at the NAACP convention, the National Urban League, and the National Association of Black Journalists, yet he still has the nerve to ask African Americans ‘what we have to lose’ under his agenda.” She added, “Donald Trump continues to show us who he really is: an attention seeking opportunist with no real regard for the well-being of Black people.” According to the Clinton campaign, Clinton has held 100 African American-focused events, including conferences for the National Urban League and NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus gala.

It certainly would have been better for Trump not to have promised an appearance, indeed not to go with his fingers-crossed-behind-his-back promise to go into neighborhoods Republicans do not campaign in. It was not going to help him with those voters anyway. Now, he has done something rare — shown a lack of confidence and fear of a media event that could spin out of control.

The implicit message could not be any clearer. He loves, loves, loves speaking to huge audiences of whites. He talks off the top of his head. He needs no notes. He’ll go to Washington state to talk to them. However, he cannot bring himself to make a single public appearance — even with a script in the teleprompter — to reassure African Americans that he cares about them.

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“If his sermon turned out to be anything like his tweets it could set race relations back a generation,” joked Rick Wilson, a Trump critic who is assisting independent conservative Evan McMullin. Well, he does have a point. The entire exercise is insincere, and his team is so lacking in diversity that what is meant to be outreach comes across as stereotyping and condescension.