-—So maybe The Donald is not necessarily looking for an endorsement-—
Unless the article is lying, his own campaign called the meeting an endorsement...
Yes, his campaign announced an endorsement. And his people are not dummies, by any stretch. And they know there’s a bunch of scumbags in the press. So they know the scumbags are going to push any negative they find or can make up.
Trump’s people announce a gathering of pastors that will endorse Trump for president. He’s met them before and they’ve agreed.
So pretend for a moment you’re working with the scumbag press. What do you do to attack? You scour social media to see if there’s any hint of some disgruntled pastors. You find some, do a quick phone or text interview, and you print crap that sounds like the Trump team doesn’t have the endorsements when in fact they have plenty of endorsements. Propaganda is part of war.