poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201511/3342/1155968404_4638251377001_Donald-and-pastors-.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Donald Trump talks with reporters while surrounded by a group of African-American religious leaders in New York on Nov. 30, 2015. Trump met with a coalition of 100 African-American... (Associated Press) 
 
 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, foreground center, stands in the middle of a media crush in the Trump Tower lobby in New York, Monday, Nov. 30, 2015. Trump met with a coalition of 100... (Associated Press) 
 
 While some left the gathering at Trump's skyscraper in midtown Manhattan with hopes their message had resonated, Trump said afterward he had no plans to change his approach, which he said had taken him to "first position in every single poll." “The beautiful thing about the meeting is they didn’t ask me to change the tone.” 
 
 The back-and-forth echoes a similar debate that emerged among evangelical leaders at a similar meeting at Trump Tower in September. Bloomer said he told Trump that "if he wants to have our ear as a community, to at least tone down the rhetoric some kind of way, tone it down. "It gets publicity — unfortunately, as everything I do gets publicity — and probably some of the Black Lives Matter folks called them up and said: 'You shouldn't be meeting with Trump because he believes that all lives matter,'" he said. The demands, part of an hours-long meeting with dozens of black faith leaders that has been mired in controversy since it was announced on Wednesday, come after many leaders came under fire for meeting with Trump and after his campaign canceled the public portion of the event. Trump has come under fire in the past week for condoning the rough treatment of a Black Lives Matter protester by his white supporters at a campaign rally in Alabama and for tweeting a chart with made-up statistics overstating the percentage of white murder victims killed by blacks. In a letter published by Ebony magazine, more than 100 black religious leaders wrote that "Trump's racially inaccurate, insensitive and incendiary rhetoric should give those charged with the care of the spirits and souls of black people great pause." They also expressed concern that Monday's gathering would "give Trump the appearance of legitimacy among those who follow your leadership and respect your position as clergy."
– Donald Trump says a meeting with dozens of black pastors at Trump Tower on Monday was "amazing," "inspiring," and "unbelievable"—but he has no intention of changing his campaign's tone. His campaign initially said the summit would be followed by public endorsements from more than 100 clergy members, though it later canceled the public part of the meeting and pastors say there were plenty of disagreements during the talk, Politico reports. "I asked him: 'Are you a racist?'" Bishop George Bloomer tells the AP. "People are saying that about you," Bloomer says he told Trump. "If you are seeking the African-American community to support you, at the least, you're not helping with these kind of things that are going on." Clergy members say the roughing up of a Black Lives Matter protester at a Trump rally was discussed, as was Trump's rhetoric on immigration. Afterward, Trump said, "The beautiful thing about the meeting is they didn't ask me to change the tone," per Politico. Some attendees say he did agree to soften his tone somewhat, though the AP reports that at a Monday evening rally in Macon, Ga., where he was introduced by Herman Cain, Trump repeated the positions on immigration that the pastors had been concerned about. But he has adopted a "newly conciliatory tone on racial matters," according to the New York Times: Trump and the clergy members who met with him were strongly criticized by the Rev. Al Sharpton on Monday, and Trump's only response in a Times interview was, "Deep down inside, Al likes me a lot."