DEVELOPING – Donald Trump on Saturday used historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, as the setting to make a closing argument for his Republican presidential campaign, telling Americans that Washington and Wall Street are “rigged” against them and that he is the candidate to bring “the change that has to come.”
“I am not a politician,” Trump told the crowd. “But when I saw the trouble our country was in, I felt I had to act.”
The speech was billed as an opportunity for Trump to lay out his priorities for the first 100 days of a Trump presidency. However, much of the early part focused on attacks against Democrat rival Hillary Clinton and Wall Street.
Trump said that if elected his administration would try to undo an emerging deal in which AT&T will buy Time Warner, which would create a major media conglomerate.
With Election Day now just 16 days away and Trump trailing Clinton in essentially every poll, the GOP nominee is working to assure voters that he is as capable and knowledgeable about policy as he is about rough-and-tumble electoral politics.
“Trump will use the historic setting of Gettysburg where the country was saved,” a senior campaign source told Fox News. “He will lay out a concise program that he will commit to execute from the first day in office.”
Gettysburg is where Republican President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address in November 1863 in an attempt to unify Americans amid the Civil War.
Clinton has had a clear policy advantage over Trump since Day One of the 2016 White House race, considering she is a former first lady, New York senator and secretary of state.
Trump on Saturday is not expected to announce any new or major policy changes and will instead try to make a closing argument for him and his 16-month campaign platform, which includes tax reform, border security, rebuilding the U.S. military and cutting federal regulations.
However campaign officials say Trump — whose withering attacks helped him beat 16 other major GOP candidates to win the party’s presidential nomination — will in Gettysburg continue to attack Clinton and draw distinctions between their respective visions for the country.
Throughout the campaign, and particularly in the candidates’ third-and-final debate Wednesday night, Trump has argued that Clinton, in her 30 years in politics, has failed to solve any major domestic or foreign issues for the United States.
Trump is making several stops this weekend in Pennsylvania, one of a handful of battleground states that he must win to become president.
He trails Clinton in Pennsylvania by 6 percent points, according to the RealClearPolitics polls average.
However, Trump appears in the past few days to be cutting into Clinton’s lead, in part with his repeated message that the liberal media has “rigged” the election by recently publishing allegation against him by at least nine women.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday showed Trump having cut Clinton’s lead in half.
“The media refuses to talk about the three new national polls that have me in first place,” Trump tweeted overnight. “Biggest crowds ever — watch what happens!”
Developing story from Fox News
From the speech: “I will sue my accusers after the campaign ..”
FULL: Donald Trump Delivers A POWERFUL Speech On How He Will Make America Great Again 10/22/16
