Former President Donald Trump is expected to appear at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention in Chicago on Wednesday, despite protests from many of the Black journalists attending.

President Trump will engage in a Q&A with political journalists before an audience of registered convention attendees that will concentrate on the most pressing issues facing the Black community, a statement released Monday from the Trump campaign said.

The Wednesday forum with Trump which wont be open to the public, but will be livestreamed on the NABJs YouTube page is set to feature Rachel Scott, a senior congressional correspondent for ABC News, as the moderator.

The NABJ, founded in 1975, is a nonprofit organization with more than 4,000 members that advocates on behalf of Black journalists and media professionals in the U.S. and worldwide, according to its website . The group gives out more than $100,000 in scholarships every year. HuffPost journalists often attend the NABJs annual conferences.

The groups decision to platform Trump has been met with widespread criticism. Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah said Tuesday she will step down from her role as a co-chair for this years NABJ gathering.

I have decided to step down as co-chair from this years #NABJ24 convention in Chicago, Attiah posted on X , the former Twitter. To the journalists interviewing Trump, I wish them the best of luck.

Sports writer Carron Phillips, who said he is attending the convention, called Trumps scheduled appearance the single dumbest and worst decision in NABJ history.

Whoever made this call is an idiot, Phillips wrote on X . And Ill say it to their face this week.

Jason Ingram, a sports producer, made similar remarks.

As a member of NABJ for over 20 years, this is the worst decision they have ever made, Ingram said on X . I am truly disappointed in everyone involved with this decision. Dude doesnt care about black people!!!!

NABJ President Ken Lemon said in a statement that interviewing Trump will give Black journalists the opportunity for them to ask the tough questions that will provide the truthful answers Black Americans want and need to know.

The Trump campaign praised the former presidents supposed accomplishments for Black Americans under his term.

President Trump accomplished more for Black Americans than any other president in recent history by implementing America First policies on the economy, immigration, energy, law and order, and foreign policy, the statement said.

In the past, Trump who is now the 2024 Republican nominee for president questioned President Barack Obama s U.S. citizenship, and in 2020 promoted the false claim that Vice President Kamala Harris also might not be a U.S. citizen . (Obama was born in Hawaii, while Harris was born in California.) Earlier this year, Trump lobbed a similar lie at Nikki Haley , who competed against him in the 2024 primary. Haley was born in South Carolina and served as Republican governor of the state from 2011 to 2017.

Trump also called for the Central Park Five a group of Black and Latino teens wrongly accused of raping a white woman to be executed in a full-page newspaper ad in 1989. Trump has never apologized for his calls to kill the teens, who today, as adults, are known as the Exonerated Five .

Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has also been invited to the NABJ convention. The NABJ said in a statement that her confirmation is still pending.