“Not too much,” he said.

Mr. Trump and his allies had billed the speech, at Benedict College in Columbia, as a chance for the president to step outside the friendly confines of his supporter base and pitch his administration’s record on criminal justice reform and black employment directly to a black audience.

But fewer than 10 students from Benedict were given tickets to the invitation-only event, which had room for about 300 attendees, according to a college spokeswoman. More than half of the seats were reserved for guests and allies of the administration, including many black supporters of Mr. Trump who came from out of state.

“I’m happy he was here,” said Byron Donalds, a black Republican lawmaker in the Florida Legislature who came here for the speech. “People say a lot of things, but I’m about what actually gets done. Some people take issue with him, but I’ve always said, don’t talk about it — be about it. And I’m about what he’s getting done.”

The friendliness of the audience was clear from the moment Mr. Trump took the stage, when someone shouted, “We love you, Mr. President, we love you!” More than once, the audience broke into chants of “four more years,” to which Mr. Trump responded at one point: “Just don’t say 16 more years. You’ll drive them crazy.”

Mr. Trump’s speech opened a three-day event at the college, billed as the “Second Step Presidential Justice Forum.” Leading Democratic presidential candidates will attend the forum on Saturday and Sunday to discuss their criminal justice plans, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

The forum’s name is a reference to the First Step Act, which has helped thousands of federal inmates secure early release under new sentencing guidelines.

Another Democratic candidate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, said Friday she was pulling out of her scheduled appearance at the forum because its organizers had honored Mr. Trump with their annual Bipartisan Justice Award. She said Mr. Trump had spent decades “celebrating mass incarceration.”