--- title: Donald Trump Declines Invite to Speak at NAACP Convention description: Donald Trump has declined an invitation to speak at the upcoming NAACP Annual Convention in Ohio, the leader of the civil rights group said canonical: https://time.com/4403881/donald-trump-declines-naacp-convention/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-13T00:09:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:54:00.184Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Declines Invitation to Speak at NAACP Convention og:description: But Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton will attend og:url: https://time.com/4403881/donald-trump-declines-naacp-convention/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2e626ec61c107a4/69889bafab6d7730f06aa6e0/donald-trump-naacp-convention.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Gives Speech On Veterans Reform og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Declines Invitation to Speak at NAACP Convention twitter:description: But Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton will attend twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2e626ec61c107a4/69889bafab6d7730f06aa6e0/donald-trump-naacp-convention.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Declines Invitation to Speak at NAACP Convention  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jul 13, 2016 12:09 AM UTC  Donald Trump pauses while speaking during a campaign event on veterans reform in Virginia on July 11, 2016. Donald Trump pauses while speaking during a campaign event on veterans reform in Virginia on July 11, 2016.Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jul 13, 2016 12:09 AM UTC Donald Trump has [declined an invitation to speak](http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/12/politics/donald-trump-naacp-convention/index.html) at the upcoming [NAACP Annual Convention](http://naacpconvention.org/) in Ohio, the leader of the civil rights group said Tuesday. Both Trump and Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton were invited. NAACP President Cornell William Brooks told CNN on Tuesday that the [presumptive GOP presidential nominee](http://time.com/4402531/reince-priebus-donald-trump-vice-president-convention/?xid=homepage) will not be present at this weekend’s event due to an apparent scheduling conflict. Instead, Clinton will attend and give a speech. “Mr. Trump has declined our invitation, so we will hear from Sec. Clinton,” Brooks said. “Namely, the explanation given was that (the Republicans) are holding their convention at the same time. We are, of course, in Cincinnati, they are in Cleveland. We were hoping he would make the short trip from Cleveland to Cincinnati.” Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Brooks told CNN it was a missed opportunity for Trump to “speak to the nation’s most critical issues at a critical hour in this country.” “You can’t run for president and not talk about police misconduct and police brutality,” he said. “You can’t run for president and not talk about this country’s civil rights agenda, so this is an important moment and our convention really will be an opportunity for anyone running for president to provide a window into not only their policies, but into their heart and character as a candidate.” \[[_CNN_](http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/12/politics/donald-trump-naacp-convention/index.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4403881/donald-trump-declines-naacp-convention/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4403881/donald-trump-declines-naacp-convention/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Declines Invitation to Speak at NAACP Convention","datePublished":"2016-07-13T00:09:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:54:00.184Z","description":"Donald Trump has declined an invitation to speak at the upcoming NAACP Annual Convention in Ohio, the leader of the civil rights group. Both Trump and Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton were invited","url":"https://time.com/4403881/donald-trump-declines-naacp-convention/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2e626ec61c107a4/69889bafab6d7730f06aa6e0/donald-trump-naacp-convention.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2e626ec61c107a4/69889bafab6d7730f06aa6e0/donald-trump-naacp-convention.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Gives Speech On Veterans Reform","caption":"PresumptivDonald Trump pauses while speaking during a campaign event on veterans reform in Virginia on July 11, 2016.","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4403881/donald-trump-declines-naacp-convention/","name":"Donald Trump Declines Invitation to Speak at NAACP Convention"}}]}] ```