Donald Trump: ‘I figured something was up’ with the pastor who interrupted me

Donald Trump said Thursday he “figured something was up” with a pastor who interrupted him at a church in Michigan a day earlier once he started criticizing his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, saying the pastor was “like a nervous mess.”

“Even in that audience, the treatment was great, but something was up, because I noticed she was so nervous when she introduced me,” Mr. Trump said on “Fox and Friends.” “When she got up to introduce me, she was so nervous she was shaking, and I said, ’Wow, this is sort of strange.’ And then she came up.”

“So she had that in mind — there’s no question about it,” he said.

While in Flint, Michigan, on Wednesday, the GOP presidential nominee paid a visit to Bethel United Methodist Church as he continues to try to reach out to African-Americans. He talked about Flint and the auto industry before veering into criticism of Mrs. Clinton.

“Hillary failed on the economy — just like she has failed on foreign policy. Everything she touches didn’t work out — nothing,” he said.

“Mr. Trump, I invited you here to thank us for what [we’ve] done in Flint, not to give a political speech,” the Rev. Faith Green Timmons said as she approached Mr. Trump.

“Oh, oh, oh, OK. OK,” Mr. Trump said. “That’s good. And I’m going to go back onto Flint. OK.”

Mr. Trump said Thursday that it didn’t bother him.

“I mean, everyone plays their games,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me.”

“I’ll tell you what really made me feel good — the audience said, ’Let him speak. Let him speak,’ ” Mr. Trump said. “The audience was so great.”

“These are mostly African-American people — phenomenal people — and they want to see change,” he said. “You have to see, the crime rate over there is ridiculous … what they did with the water is horrible, but the crime rate and all the other problems they have.”

“I use the expression, I say, ’What do you have to lose?’ I’m going to fix it. I’m going to fix it. What do you have to lose?” Mr. Trump said. “And I’ll tell you, the audience was fantastic.”

“But she was so nervous. She was like a nervous mess,” he said. “I figured something was up, really.”

Mlive.com reported that other people tried to ask Mr. Trump what he meant when he says African-Americans have nothing to lose, whether he was sorry for firing black workers from his casinos and about about his family’s history with alleged housing discrimination.