MAGA supporters try gatecrashing Black convention ahead of Trump event

CHICAGO — Sporting red “Trump” baseball caps and buttons featuring the former president’s mugshot and portraits of other famous figures from Princess Diana to former President John F. Kennedy, two supporters of Donald Trump joined a mass of media representatives as they waited for Secret Service to finish clearing the hotel ballroom where the Republican nominee is scheduled to speak Wednesday.

Trump’s speech at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago is open to event attendees and credentialed media — but that didn’t stop Connie Lee, 53, and Jeanette Scott, 59, from joining the crowd in the lobby of the Hilton Chicago.

“Trump, Chicago has your back,” said Lee, a resident of Chicago’s East Ukrainian Village neighborhood. “We love you and we know what you stand for, and we’re totally in support of what you’re doing. You’re bringing change to America, what we need, bringing us back to God.”

Scott acknowledged that the event was closed to the public, but she still wanted to “try to go watch,” she told Raw Story.

“We’re aware of that. We’re still comfortable,” said Scott, of Lombard, Ill.

Lee has attended eight events supporting Trump from Iowa to Florida to South Carolina and said she planned to be both inside the hotel and outside.

Trump is scheduled to participate in a question and answer session about the “most pressing issues facing the Black community,” according to a release from his campaign.

“We’re all one people, one movement. We’re all the same. There’s no difference between Black, white, Asian, whatever. We’re just one people. We’re one race and that’s what he stands for,” Lee told Raw Story.

Rachel Scott, senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, Harris Faulkner, anchor of The Faulkner Focus and co-host of Outnumbered on FOX News, and Kadia Goba, politics reporter at Semafor, will host the conversation with the former president.

His invite has caused one co-chair to resign and other convention-goers to threaten a boycott.

Scott said she started supporting Trump in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and “knew something was wrong” when he lost the election to President Joe Biden.

“I hope that people will see that Donald Trump, he is for the people. He is for us and that everybody will take something positive and spread it that, Trump, he is for saving America,” Scott said.