Trump outlines 100-day plan in Gettysburg speech

GETTYSBURG, Pa. — Donald Trump launched an attempt to lift his campaign Saturday, delivering a speech billed as a closing argument in a hotel ballroom near the battlefield that turned the direction of the Civil War.

The GOP nominee for president praised Abraham Lincoln for uniting the country, and delivered a confident and forward-looking outline of a Trump administration that would obliterate the Washington establishment and return power to the people.

Trump pledged more than two dozen bills and executive actions in his first 100 days in office.

Trump spoke with a subdued voice from a teleprompter to a small crowd that rarely left its feet, a contrast to two free-wheeling rallies he had in Pennsylvania on Friday.

Trump billed the speech as a policy address that would highlight his first actions as president. But almost all the promises had been made before in other speeches and news releases.

They include steep tax reductions, a border wall with Mexico, a constitutional amendment limiting terms for members of Congress and the cancellation of billions of dollars in payments for United Nations climate change programs. He added details to a recent proposal to impose mandatory minimum criminal sentences for immigrants who return to the U.S. illegally after they have been deported and a promise to freeze most federal government hiring.

Trump had given a similar speech in June during another low point in his campaign, laying out eight promises for his first 100 days in office. Among them: appointing conservative judges, repealing and replacing President Barack Obama’s health care law and lifting restrictions on energy production.

For her part, Clinton has increasingly been looking past the election in her speeches as she tries to reach out to Trump voters, many of whom signal they will not accept the results of the election if he loses.

Trump has also accused the media repeatedly this week of ignoring three recent national polls that show his campaign ahead of Clinton’s — including the Los Angeles Times poll that showed him leading by a fraction of a percentage point as of Saturday. The majority of national polls, however, along with those from key battleground states, show Trump’s deficit deepening.

Many of his supporters are convinced he will win, agreeing with him that the news media is in cahoots with Clinton to shape coverage and manipulate polls to depress turnout among his voters.