Here’s a typical news headline from Thursday.
Donald Trump meeting with Latino, African-American activists in Manhattan
Like that? Here's another.
Trump will meet with Latino, black activists Thursday
Sounds good. Who is Trump meeting with? The NAACP, whose meeting he spurned? Representatives from Black Lives Matter, who he blamed for deaths of police officers? No. This is the hard-hitting activist group with whom Donald Trump engaged.
More than a dozen members of the Republican Leadership Institute were meeting with Trump Thursday morning at Trump Tower in New York City.
Donald Trump had a dozen minority members of the Republican Leadership Institute shipped to his office. Twice. His idea of meeting with “Latino, black activists” was to sit across a table from people who already worked for the Republican Party. This is the extent of Trump’s outreach to communities of color. Because talking to actual minorities in the horrible all-poverty, all-crime communities that Donald Trump has described is just too dangerous.
Kellyanne Conway: Republican national nominees usually aren’t bold enough to go into communities of color and take the case right to them and compete for all ears and compete for all votes. They’ve been afraid to do that, so Mr. Trump deserves credit for at least taking the case directly to the people.
Yes. Donald Trump boldly sat in his own building, in his own office, at his own table where a small group of trainee field operatives from the Republican Leadership Institute was brought in. Creating a community of color, right on the spot. But don’t worry, Conway was just a paragraph from giving them a promotion.
Conway: I sat at a round table with him just yesterday where we had African American leaders from many — many different countries of origin…
Republican field operatives in training equal both “black activists” and “African American leaders.”
Donald Trump should get all the credit he deserves for this extensive outreach to the community.