Former President Donald Trump addressed the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual conference Wednesday in Chicago, where he constantly argued back and forth with the black journalists who questioned him.
The panel was moderated by ABC’s Rachel Scott, Fox News’s Harris Faulkner, and Semafor’s Kadia Goba and Scott immediately questioned Trump’s past controversial statements on race.
The panel was an attempt for Trump to appeal to black voters in his likely battle against Vice President Kamala Harris, who is aiming to become the nation’s first female president and the second black president.
Trump’s surprise appearance sparked severe backlash from NABJ members who alleged that the former president’s hostility to the press, in particular high-profile black female journalists, as well as his denigration of Chicago, conflicted with the goal of the association. Critics also slammed the Trump invitation as an effort to appear willing to engage with black media and voters while continuing to champion policies that will hurt black and brown communities.
But within moments of the panel starting, it devolved into chaos. The panel was supposed to last an hour but the event ended at roughly 34 minutes. Here are the top moments where things went off the rails.
When Scott questioned Trump about the protests from NABJ members that he was attending the convention, Trump immediately went on the attack.
“Well, first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question … in such a horrible manner, first question,” Trump said. “You don’t even say ‘Hello, how are you?’ Are you with ABC because I think they’re a fake news network. A terrible network.” The comments brought on a gasp from viewers in the room.
“And I think it’s disgraceful that I came here in good spirit,” he continued. “I love the black population of this country. I’ve done so much for the black population of this country, including employment, including opportunity zones, with Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, which is one of the greatest programs ever for black workers and black entrepreneurs.”
Trump also repeatedly called Scott’s questions “rude” throughout the panel. The Harris campaign was quick to weigh in on it.
“This is an absolute disaster for Donald Trump,” spokesman Ammar Moussa posted on X. “I cannot believe he did this.”
The former president also cast doubt on Harris’s black identity when Scott questioned him about calling Harris a diversity, equity, and inclusion candidate. The vice president is of black and Southeast Asian descent.
“So I’ve known her a long time, indirectly, not directly, very much, and she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage,” Trump said. “I didn’t know she was black, until a number of years ago when she ran (as) black, and now she wants to be known as black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she black?
“I respect either one, but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and … she became a black person,” Trump said to disapproval from the crowd.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Trump’s comments “repulsive” during Wednesday’s press briefing.
“No one has any right to tell someone who they are how they identify,” Jean-Pierre said before claiming “She is the vice president of the United States. Kamala Harris. We have to put some respect on her name. Period.”
Even before appearing at the conference Wednesday, Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to blast Harris for not participating in a session with NABJ.
“Crazy Kamala disrespectfully refused to attend the National Association of Black Journalists Conference, but I am on my way to meet with them now in Chicago,” Trump wrote. “Because of which, she’ll probably end up doing, she has no choice, but remember—it is only for that reason!”
NABJ announced roughly an hour before the panel with Trump began that the organization is in talks to have Harris address the group in person or virtually in September.
When questioned by moderators about his use of the phrase “black job,” Trump clarified that the phrase “a black job is anybody that has a job, that’s what it is.”
“They’re taking the employment away from black people,” Trump added referring to immigrants interfering with the black unemployment rate. “It’s an invasion of millions of people, probably 15, 16, 17 million people.”
Trump had first used the term during his first and only presidential debate against President Joe Biden this cycle in late June. It led to black users mocking the phrase on social media as a sign Trump is out of touch.
During the panel, Goba questioned Trump about his embrace of giving police offers immunity from prosecution in reference to the death of Sonya Massey, who was shot and killed by an Illinois sheriff.
“I don’t know the exact case, but I saw something, and it didn’t look, it didn’t look good to me,” Trump said. “It didn’t look good to me.”
Goba asked Trump if Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell should receive immunity, to which he responded: “Well he might not. I mean, it depends. It depends on what happens. I’m talking about people that are much different cases than that.”
Trump then pointed to deaths in Chicago, a frequent refrain of his, before reiterating his support for law enforcement.
“We need to have our police officers have the respect and dignity back,” he said. “In this particular case, I saw something that didn’t look good to me. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all.”
Karen Attiah, a columnist at the Washington Post and a co-chairwoman of the convention, resigned from her position in protest of the Trump invitation.
“While my decision was influenced by a variety of factors, I was not involved or consulted with in any way with the decision to platform Trump in such a format,” said Attiah, who was a 2019 journalist of the year, in a post on X.
April Ryan, White House correspondent for theGrio, reported that NABJ President Ken Lemon and Executive Director Drew Berry told Harris she “needed” to be in Chicago and originally declined a virtual fireside appearance from Harris or a later date event with her.
In a statement early Wednesday, Lemon said the organization is “in talks about virtual options in the future and are still working to reach an agreement.”
Lemon defended the decision to invite Trump, citing the organization’s past invitations to presidential candidates to address the convention attendees.
“We extend that to anyone who is a nominee and in this case we have two presumptive nominees,” Lemon said. “We’ve invited both of them. We got a yes from one of them.”
Ryan, who was a 2017 NABJ Journalist of the Year awardee, objected to Trump’s attendance in Chicago.
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“To have a presumed orchestrated session with the former president is an affront to what this organization stands for and a slap in the face to the Black women journalists (NABJ journalists of the year) who had to protect themselves from the wrath of this Republican presidential nominee who is promoting an authoritarian agenda that plans to destroy this nation and her democracy with his Project 2025,” Ryan posted on X.
As the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Harris is preparing for the Democratic National Convention, which will also take place in Chicago beginning Aug. 19. The vice president is also preparing to attend the funeral of the late Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.