Seeking to reboot his flagging presidential bid, Donald Trump has made a strong pitch to African-American voters, saying he wants the Republican party to become their home once again as it used to be in the Abraham Lincoln-era.
"The GOP is the Party of Lincoln and I want our party to be the home of the African-American vote once again. I want an inclusive country and I want an inclusive party," Trump said at an election rally in Virginia, a swing state, which is now leaning towards the Democrats.
Recent polls indicate that Trump is trailing behind Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton among non-White communities, in particularly among African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Latinos.
This week, Trump appears to have made mid-course correction by delivering speeches to woo African-Americans. He continued the trend in Virginia on Saturday.
"We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton who sees people of colour only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future. We've seen what the Democratic policies have done in cities like Detroit, Baltimore and Chicago," the 70-year-old business tycoon said.
"Now, Hillary Clinton wants to make things worse by raising taxes on 2.6 million African-American owned businesses in this country. My goal is to provide every African-American child in this country with access to the ladder of American success: a good education and a good-paying job," Trump said.
"This includes school choice. It means reforming regulations so young Americans can get the credit they need to start a small business. It means trade and immigration policies that put American workers at the front of the line," he said.
Trump alleged that the immigration policy of Clinton would not help African-Americans in getting jobs.
"She would rather provide a job to a refugee living overseas than a young unemployed African-American youth in Virginia," he said.
"A Trump Administration will put American workers first. Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo. We will bring America together as one country again -- united as Americans in common purpose and common dreams," Trump said.
A Trump Administration, he said, will end the Obama- Clinton "war on the American worker".
"We will unleash an energy revolution the likes of which we have never seen before," he said.
Trump said according to the Institute for Energy Research, lifting the restrictions on all sources of American energy will increase GDP by more than USD 100 billion annually, add over 500,000 new jobs annually and increase annual wages by more than USD 30 billion over the next 7 years.
"Hillary Clinton will 'Make America Poor'. I want to 'Make America Wealthy Again'. Another industry of huge importance to this state and country is agriculture," he said.
IMAGE: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally where he said that his focus will be on Americanism and not on globalism. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters
