In the summer of 2011, Darrell Scott, a Pentecostal minister from a Black church in Cleveland, the New Spirit Revival Center, was asked by a televangelist friend to come to Trump Tower in New York for a meeting shrouded in mystery. Scott was ushered up to a ballroom on the 26th floor where he found a group of about 15 other pastors waiting.
Donald Trump, then star of The Celebrity Apprentice, swept into the room. “I’m thinking about running for president,” he told the astonished gathering. “I’m hoping you guys can pray on me, that God gives me the wisdom to make the right decision.”
The former president held his fire on that occasion, but not before Scott had shared with him some blunt home truths. As a plain-talking born-again former drug dealer, and one of the only Black pastors present in the room, Scott gave it to Trump straight.
