CLEVELAND -- Celebrity businessman Donald Trump will conclude an improbable run to the Republican presidential nomination Thursday by pledging in his acceptance speech to reduce violence and cut taxes and regulations to rev up an American economy still recovering from the Great Recession.
According to excerpts provided in advance of the speech, Trump, making his first try for public office, is expected to argue that only someone new in the White House could reverse America's decline.
"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," Trump's speech to the Republican National Convention reads. "My message is that things have to change -- and they have to change right now."
Donald Trump on Tuesday night greeted the Republican National Convention via video from New York City.
Trump broke no new ground in the speech excerpts that largely were free of the personal attacks on his opponents that characterized his campaign for the nomination.
As he has in recent weeks, Trump pledged to bring back law and order to the U.S., echoing a theme that Richard Nixon used to win the White House in 1968.
"Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities," Trump's speech excerpts say. "I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end." He gave Jan. 20, 2017, the next presidential inauguration day, as the time when "safety will be restored."
He continued to describe his campaign theme as "America First," the name of the group that opposed the U.S. entry into World War II to fight the Nazis and was led by aviator Charles Lindbergh, who complained that the Jews who controlled the government and media were pushing for war.
Trump blamed presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state, for the many of the problems facing the U.S., though without calling her "Crooked Hillary" or echoing many of the insults directed at her throughout the four-day convention.
"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, according to the excerpts. "I am certain it is a decision he truly regrets. Her bad instincts and her bad judgment -- something pointed out by Bernie Sanders -- are what caused many of the disasters unfolding today."
Trump in the speech called for tax cuts. His proposal would increase the federal deficit by more than $10 trillion over 10 years and give the top 1 percent of Americans an average $227,225 tax cut and the bottom 20 percent an average reduction of $250, according to Citizens for Tax Justice.
He promised to reduce government regulations, which he called "one of the greatest job-killers of them all" despite 75 consecutive months of job growth.
With the new revenue from his proposals, Trump said there would be plenty of money to build "the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, and the railways of tomorrow."
He also reached out to Christian conservatives, a key part of the GOP coalition, by calling for using taxpayer funds for parents to send their children to private and religious schools.
"To every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight: I'm with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you," Trump said.