When Donald Trump got a call from the pastor of a mostly black church in Flint, Michigan; he must have thought he was about to scoop up another endorsement from a black pastor. Well, when that pastor stopped him from going into stump-speech mode, it resulted in a classic Trumpian meltdown.
On Wednesday night, hours after touring Flint’s water treatment plant, Trump stopped by Bethel United Methodist Church, which has been one of many churches that has distributed bottled water to Flint residents after its water supply was contaminated with toxic levels of lead in 2014. In a statement, the church’s pastor, Faith Green Timmons, stated that Trump’s appearance “in no way represents an endorsement of his candidacy.” Rather, she saw it as a chance to ensure Flint’s ordeal didn’t leave the national spotlight.
Trump’s appearance was organized more or less on the fly during phone conversations between Timmons and Armstrong Williams, a prominent black conservative columnist who is also a business partner to Trump rival-turned-adviser Ben Carson. So it’s safe to assume that Timmons didn’t know what she was in for when Trump took the stage at her church.
WJBK in Detroit got a clip of the whole appearance. Watch here.
Trump started out well–at least by his standards. He touted Flint’s long history with the auto industry. But then he tried to tie the massive number of auto industry jobs heading overseas to Hillary Clinton’s support of free trade agreements and also attacked Hillary’s conduct of foreign policy.
It looked like a classic Trump meltdown–until Timmons stopped Trump in his tracks. She walked on stage and told Trump gently, but firmly:
“Mr. Trump, I invited you here to thank us for what we’ve done for Flint, not to give a political speech.”
A chastened Trump went back to the Flint issue with scarcely a whimper of protest.
However, Trump didn’t sound so chastened on Thursday morning when he dropped in on “Fox & Friends.” Watch here.
Trump claimed that he suspected “something was up” when Timmons introduced him; he claimed she was “a nervous mess” and was “shaking” all over. He claimed that when Timmons cut him off in mid-rant, it eliminated any doubt that “she had that in mind.” Predictably, the fair and balanced network ate it up, playing up a since-deleted Facebook post from Timmons in which she declared that she intended to show Trump how her city was “braving a man-made catastrophe.” She declared, “HE WILL NOT USE US, WE WILL EDUCATE HIM!!”
NPR’s Scott Detrow was on hand for the speech as a pool reporter, and told a very different story. From where he was sitting, Timmons “didn’t appear nervous at all” when she introduced Trump. He also knocked down Trump’s claim that the audience started chanting, “Let him speak, let him speak,” when Timmons cut him off. On the contrary, Detrow noted that there was no protest. On the contrary, a number of people in the audience started heckling Trump. Timmons actually intervened in his defense, telling the crowd that Trump was “a guest of my church, and you will respect him.” So who do you believe–Fox News or NPR? I’d rather go with NPR.
For her part, Timmons took to Facebook Wednesday night and claimed Trump had blindsided her when he started his meltdown in her pulpit.
Welcome to the club, Faith.
Timmons went further in an interview on Thursday afternoon. Watch here, courtesy WJBK.
Timmons said that she invited Trump in the spirit of the United Methodist Church’s philosophy of “open doors, open minds.” She’d gotten wind that Trump’s team “had plans to make it a little more than they originally said,” but she bluntly told him that wasn’t going to happen at her church. When she saw he was veering off his agreed script, she felt that she had to step in. She added that all she wanted to do was show Trump “the best of Flint” in hopes of countering his bigoted statements on the trail.
Sounds to me that Trump was expecting Timmons to bow and scrape before him, like his favorite black pastor, Mark Burns. When she didn’t, Trump picked his favorite morning show to go into full meltdown. If you ever wondered why Trump has a yuuuuge credibility gap with blacks and swing voters, this is why.
