Then-President Donald Trump rose from his desk, where he had signed an executive order, and reached to shake the hand of Bishop Donte L. Hickman, senior pastor of Baltimore’s Southern Baptist Church.

The White House ceremony during Trump’s first term marked the unveiling of a plan, supported by Hickman, intended to boost private investment in distressed communities. “He’s been an incredible leader,” Trump said of the pastor.

The dignitaries in the crowded Roosevelt Room smiled and clapped. But Hickman knew his 2018 appearance with the Republican president would not be wholeheartedly embraced in blue Baltimore, whose leaders had challenged the veracity of derogatory Trump comments about gangs of illegal immigrants in the city.

“I had ministerial colleagues who said, ‘What are you doing?’ Some people understood but didn’t have any faith that the president would follow through,” Hickman said in an interview on Thursday.

Hickman’s experience underscores a dilemma facing Baltimore faith leaders, elected officials and others: whether to engage Trump, resist him, or navigate a combination of the two.

Trump, who lost his bid for a second term in 2020, defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November and will take office for the second time on Jan. 20.

Trump got just 12% of Baltimore’s vote on Nov. 5. His disagreements with city officials in his first term seemed to veer from political to personal.

Trump’s first administration clashed with the city over immigration and other issues. In July 2019, he let loose a string of tweets about Rep, Elijah Cummings, a Baltimore Democrat who chaired the House Oversight Committee, which had been critical of Trump’s administration. Trump tweeted that Cummings, who died later that year, “has been a brutal bully” and that his district is “considered the Worst in the USA.” Trump also tweeted that Cummings’ district was “disgusting, rat and rodent infested.”

As Trump arrived for a GOP retreat in Baltimore in September 2019, his motorcade sped past dozens of protesters chanting and waving signs. Some brought rat-themed props in reference to Trump’s tweets.

Hickman, whose church has multiple locations and about 4,000 members, said Thursday that he knows Baltimoreans feel bruised by Trump’s behavior but that “We can’t go and hide ourselves for four years and suffer. Children still need to eat, and families still need to be housed, and people still need gainful employment. And just protesting is not going to do that.”

Rather, Hickman said he favors engagement. “Participating in the process and working with those who have the power is necessary, and that’s when we have to be mature,” he said.

Hickman acknowledged that he was left disappointed by Trump’s first administration, which he said didn’t come through with the resources needed to boost the “opportunity zones” program, which is designed to attract billions of dollars of private investment and government resources to areas that most need them. “I wanted him to prove everybody wrong,” Hickman said of Trump.

Messages left with Trump’s transition team were not immediately returned.

Catherine Pugh, who was then Baltimore’s mayor, and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan had both declined invitations to attend the White House event in which Hickman participated. Hogan is a Republican who opposed Trump politically, and Pugh is a Democrat.

U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, a Baltimore Democrat with close ties to many Baltimore church leaders, said Friday: “I thought Bishop Hickman made a decision that was in his best interest. I supported it then and I support it now.”

In 2018, another group of pastors from urban areas was criticized by peers for meeting with Trump. The Rev. Jamal Bryant, who was then preaching at Baltimore’s Empowerment Temple AME Church and is now pastor of a Georgia church, said the pastors had essentially been used for a photo op.

With Trump soon to begin his new term, Mfume said: “If you’re religious leaders or clergy, I think they have to make their own decisions or choices.”

Mfume said elected officials are in a different position than faith leaders because they must advocate for constituents on specific issues — such as entitlement programs — and therefore have a duty to engage.

“But engagement is not capitulation,” he said. “On some issues, you’ll find mutual interests and mutual engagement. On others, you’ll not find any engagement because of the philosophical differences with Donald Trump.”

Mfume said Friday he will not attend Trump’s inauguration next month because it falls on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, and he will be doing community volunteer work.

Like Mfume, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott says he has a responsibility to engage with presidential administrations of varying parties. He has been working with Democratic President Joe Biden’s White House to try to address gun trafficking and the root causes of violent crime.

Asked for comment about working with Trump, the mayor’s spokesperson referred a reporter to Scott’s recent inaugural speech.

“We are certain to see some of the impacts of the next Presidential Administration in Washington. And let’s be honest, the only thing certain when it comes to them is uncertainty,” Scott said Tuesday.

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