Trump Script for Visit to Black Church Leaked

Meanwhile, Giuliani offers insider's view of Mexico talks
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 2, 2016 5:54 AM CDT
Trump Script for Visit to Black Church Leaked
Donald Trump pauses while speaking during a campaign rally, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016, in Wilmington, Ohio.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Donald Trump is planning another trip outside his comfort zone with a visit to an African-American church in Detroit on Saturday, and he wasn't planning on taking any risks, according to a leaked script seen by the New York Times. The script contains a dozen questions that Bishop Wayne T. Jackson of Great Faith Ministries International was apparently planning to ask Trump in a closed-door session—and, more unusually for such an appearance, lengthy prepared answers for Trump. "I treasure my relationship with my family, and through them, I have a strong faith enriched by an ever-wonderful God," was Trump's prepared answer for a question about whether he is a Christian.

"I want to make race disappear as a factor in government and governance," Trump was directed to say after a question about his vision for black Americans. After the script was leaked, a Trump campaign spokesman said the agenda has now changed and Trump plans to speak to the congregation directly after his interview session with the pastor. In other coverage:

  • The Detroit Free Press looks at the uphill struggle Trump will have in order to win votes in Detroit, where Mitt Romney got just 2% of the vote in 2012. Some analysts believe the real purpose of Trump's visit is to show moderate Republicans elsewhere that he is willing to reach out to different groups of voters.
  • The Washington Post analyzes Trump's latest proposals on immigration, and finds that immigration enforcement costs would leap by more than $50 billion over the next few years in order to put his plan into action.
  • Politico looks at the state of the Trump campaign with 22 days to go before early voting begins. There has been some progress in areas including getting the candidate to stay on-message, but the campaign remains "transitory and unstable," with many aides unsure who is calling the shots.
  • At FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver notes that the race is tightening as it nears the home stretch—and warns that Clinton supporters are mistaken if they think the electoral college math will save her if it continues to tighten.
  • The Wall Street Journal reports that in his big immigration speech in Arizona Wednesday, Trump had originally planned to avoid mentioning a border wall. He changed his mind and added a line about Mexico paying for the wall after finding out that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto had told reporters that he told Trump Mexico wouldn't pay. "I had no choice," Trump, who thought they had an agreement not to discuss the wall at their first meeting, tells the Journal. Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani was at the meeting and says that when Peña Nieto declared Mexico wasn't going to pay, he said: "That's off the table" and the talks moved to another subject.
(More Donald Trump stories.)

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