TRUMP ATTACKS HILLARY
'This is the legacy of Hillary Clinton: death, destruction, terrorism and weakness,' he said. 'But Hillary Clinton’s legacy does not have to be America's legacy.'
'The problems we face now – poverty and violence at home, war and destruction abroad – will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them in the first place.'
'America is far less safe – and the world is far less stable – than when Obama made the decision to put Hillary Clinton in charge of America's foreign policy,' Trump said.
At that, cries of 'Lock her up! Lock her up!' erupted, the week's unofficial anti-Clinton battle cry
'Let's defeat her in November. I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets,' he added.
'Her bad instincts and her bad judgment – something pointed out by Bernie Sanders – are what caused the disasters unfolding today,' he added.
He repeated his claim that Clinton 'wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment,' which guarantees the right to own firearms and other weapons for self-defense.
PLEDGING TO STEAMROLL 'RIGGED' SYSTEM
Trump also reinforced a central message about Clinton that has broken through to millions: that America's political system is 'rigged' by the power players he wants to depose.
'Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it,' he proclaimed.
'Big business, elite media and major donors are lining up behind the campaign of my opponent because they know she will keep our rigged system in place,' he said.
'They are throwing money at her because they have total control over everything she does. She is their puppet, and they pull the strings.'
He bashed Clinton on taxes, saying she 'plans a massive tax increase' but 'I have proposed the largest tax reduction of any candidate who has declared for the presidential race this year – Democrat or Republican.'
ON IMMIGRATION, THE ANTI-HILLARY
Trump drew a stark line, too, between his aggressive posture toward illegal immigrants and Clinton's embrace of amnesties and refugees from Syria, whom he has claimed will be Trojan horses for terrorism.
'My plan is the exact opposite of the radical and dangerous immigration policy of Hillary Clinton,' he said.
'Americans want relief from uncontrolled immigration. Communities want relief. Yet Hillary Clinton is proposing mass amnesty, mass immigration, and mass lawlessness.
'Her plan will overwhelm your schools and hospitals, further reduce your jobs and wages, and make it harder for recent immigrants to escape from poverty.'
And he criticized her approach to energy policy, which focuses on wind, solar and other new technologies. Clinton has said she aims to force coal mines into obsolescence.
Trump, however, has won converts in Appalachia – and in key swing states Ohio and Pennsylvania – by defending fossil fuel extraction.
'We are going to lift the restrictions on the production of American energy,' he said Thursday. 'This will produce more than $20 trillion in jobcreating economic activity over the next four decades.'
'My opponent, on the other hand, wants to put the great miners and steel workers of our country out of work – that will never happen when I am president.'
TRUMP'S JOURNEY – AND A LAST-MINUTE LEAK
The last 401 days of the billionaire's life led up to Thursday night, a trajectory that took him from New York City to Cleveland, Ohio – and nearly 200 places in between.
Accepting the Republican Party's presidential nomination marked the end of a journey few savvy political observers in the spring of 2015 thought he would take, fewer imagined he would survive – and hardly any comprehended that he could win.
'Remember,' he said Thursday: 'All of the people telling you that you can't have the country you want were the same people telling you that I wouldn't be standing here tonight.'
In the Quicken Loans Arena, the house that NBA champion LeBron James built out of underdog grit, he made a case for himself as the second come-from-behind kid for fans to rally around.
The promises were familiar, but came fast and furious in a 72-minute address that a Democratic attack group linked with Clinton leaked hours before TV audiences heard it.
As he has every time an unforced error tripped him up, Trump plunged ahead and showed no sign of agitation beyond his normal exterior.
PROMISES APLENTY FROM THE DONALD
He clarified his widely maligned 'Muslim ban,' reiterating that he would 'immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism – until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.'
And, he declared, in his best-known signature promise: 'We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities.'
'On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced,' he said later.
'We are going to be considerate and compassionate to everyone, but my greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens.'
As in the past, the showy pol paired his Great Wall of Trump with policy promises focused on swifter deportations – instead of admitting aliens and court-docketing them – and dramatically tightening visa policies for visitors to the U.S.
'By ending catch-and-release on the border, we will stop the cycle of human smuggling and violence,' he said. 'Illegal border crossings will go down. Peace will be restored.'
'By enforcing the rules for the millions who overstay their visas, our laws will finally receive the respect they deserve.'
He paired trade challenges with a jobs program, pledging to restore lost employment by cracking down on trade-cheating nations.
'I am not going to let companies move to other countries, firing their employees along the way, without consequences,' he said, hinting at tariffs to come.
He promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and other multilateral deals – and to scrap the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
'Instead,' Trump said, 'I will make individual deals with individual countries.'
'No longer will we enter into these massive deals, with many countries, that are thousands of pages long – and which no one from our country even reads or understands.'
