In Gettysburg, Trump outlines agenda for first 100 days

Donald Trump listens to a park ranger while on a tour at Gettysburg National Military Park, Oct. 22, 2016, in Gettysburg, Pa. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)
Donald Trump listens to a park ranger while on a tour at Gettysburg National Military Park. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)

In the same place where Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the most iconic speeches in American history, Donald Trump unveiled his “100-day action plan to Make America Great Again.”

At his own, last-minute Gettysburg address, Trump reflected on Lincoln’s leadership during the Civil War — “a time of division like we’ve never seen before” — and called on his supporters to help him “heal the divisions we are living through right now.”

“We are a very divided nation,” he told the crowd of approximately 500 local Republicans, adding that “I’m not a politician and have never wanted to be a politician, but when I saw the trouble our country was in, I knew I couldn’t stand by and watch any longer.”

Describing himself as an outsider who also understands the inner mechanics of our “very broken system,” Trump said that he is capable of delivering “the kind of change that only arrives once in a lifetime.”

Saturday’s speech was slated as an opportunity for the Republican presidential nominee to offer some specific details on how exactly he plans to enact such change. However, Trump spent the first 14 minutes or so railing against what he claims is a “rigged system,” warning against the widely debunked threat of voter fraud and accusing everyone from Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to the FBI, AT&T, Amazon and, above all, the media of “corruption.”

“They’re trying desperately to suppress my vote,” he said. “They’re trying to poison the mind of the American voter.”

And before outlining the list of actions he plans to take after his inauguration, Trump first announced what he intends to do immediately after the election: sue each of the women who’ve publicly accused him of sexual assault, unwanted groping, kissing and other inappropriate behavior.

“Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign,” he said. “Every one of these liars will be sued once the election is over.”

After vowing to “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C., and “replace it with a new government by and for the people,” Trump finally revealed his “action plan,” a combination of “pledges,” policies and legislative measures he’ll propose during his first 100 days in office.

“It’s a contract between Donald J. Trump and the American voter, and it begins with bringing honesty, accountability and change to Washington, D.C.,” Trump said, listing six “pledges” for cleaning up government corruption on his first day in the White House, including a constitutional amendment to impose congressional term limits, a “hiring freeze on all federal employees,” with the exception of military, safety and public health workers — in order to “reduce federal workforce through attrition” — and a requirement that “for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated.”

Trump also listed seven actions he’ll be talking — “really taking” — to “protect American workers” on his first day in office, which include announcing his “intention to totally renegotiate NAFTA,” which he has announced in virtually every stump speech and debate throughout his campaign, as well as withdrawing the country from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the controversial trade deal that has not yet been ratified by the U.S.

Among the several other things Trump plans to do on his first day as president are: direct his Treasury secretary to “label China a currency manipulator,” cancel “billions in payments to the United Nations climate change programs,” begin the process of selecting a replacement for late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia — “whose wife, by the way, has a Trump sign in her front yard,” and “cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama.”

On day one, Trump vowed also to begin deporting criminal illegal immigrants — “drug dealers, gang heads, killers” — and “suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur,” warning that “radical Islamic terror is right around the corner.”

For the first time since launching his bid for the White House, Trump talked about some of the pieces of legislation he plans to propose during his first 100 days, such as the Middle Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act, American Infrastructure Act, Restoring Community Safety Act, End the Offshoring Act and the Repeal and Replace ObamaCare Act — though beyond a brief elaboration on each measure, he offered little in the way of specifics.

Perhaps most notable is the End Illegal Immigration Act, which, he said, “fully funds the construction of a wall on our southern border.”

Anticipating the questions this might raise, given his promise that Mexico will pay for the border wall, Trump said, “Don’t worry about it,” and assured the crowd that the legislation would only pay for the project “with the full understanding that the country of Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such a wall.”

“We’re gonna have the wall,” he said. “Mexico’s gonna pay for the wall.”