--- title: Donald Trump: Black Pastor Explains Support at Trump Rally description: A black minister from Virginia took the stage at a Trump rally to explain why he supports the candidate after a controversial meeting. canonical: https://time.com/4134112/donald-trump-black-pastor-support/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-03T01:48:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:04:07.671Z article:section: Politics og:title: Black Pastor Explains Why He Supports Trump at VA Rally og:description: "Donald Trump just doesn't take anybody's mess" og:url: https://time.com/4134112/donald-trump-black-pastor-support/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ec4482db6068798/698873662dce0192169e6bbf/donald-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Black Pastor Explains Why He Supports Trump at VA Rally twitter:description: "Donald Trump just doesn't take anybody's mess" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ec4482db6068798/698873662dce0192169e6bbf/donald-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Black Pastor Explains Why He Supports Trump at Virginia Rally  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 3, 2015 1:48 AM UTC  Donald Trump seen during a campaign rally in Macon, Ga., Nov. 30, 2015. Donald Trump seen during a campaign rally in Macon, Ga., Nov. 30, 2015.Christopher Aluka Berry—Reuters  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 3, 2015 1:48 AM UTC Donald Trump brought out multiple black pastors at a rally in Virginia after his highly publicized [meeting with black religious leaders](http://time.com/4129757/donald-trump-black-pastor-meeting-endorsements/) earlier in the week. Steve Parson, a black minister from Virginia who attended the meeting in Trump’s office Monday, took center stage Wednesday night and spoke for a few minutes at a Trump event in Manassas. “People ask me, well why are you endorsing Donald Trump?” Parson said. “My opinion: he’s the best, and the only one that can beat Hillary Clinton. We have to win. And one thing about Donald Trump is he’s a winner, Amen. He knows how to create wealth, can I get an Amen? And as a black minister … we’re right in the inner city, and I’ll tell you we need jobs, we need employment, we need businesses. And I tell you who better to help us help ourselves than Donald Trump?” “Donald Trump just doesn’t take anybody’s mess,” Parson finished. Trump’s meeting with black pastors Monday stirred controversy when he prematurely said the attendees of the meeting would endorse him, which not all planned to do. He said he [received “many” endorsements](http://time.com/4129757/donald-trump-black-pastor-meeting-endorsements/) after the meeting. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4134112/donald-trump-black-pastor-support/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4134112/donald-trump-black-pastor-support/"},"headline":"Black Pastor Explains Why He Supports Trump at Virginia Rally","datePublished":"2015-12-03T01:48:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:04:07.671Z","description":"\"I'll tell you we need jobs, we need employment, we need businesses\"","url":"https://time.com/4134112/donald-trump-black-pastor-support/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election topic","Religion"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ec4482db6068798/698873662dce0192169e6bbf/donald-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1ec4482db6068798/698873662dce0192169e6bbf/donald-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump","caption":"Donald Trump","creditText":"Christopher Aluka Berry—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4134112/donald-trump-black-pastor-support/","name":"Black Pastor Explains Why He Supports Trump at Virginia Rally"}}]}] ```