Donald Trump went to Gettysburg to deliver what his campaign presented as a major policy speech about his first 100 days as president.
He began by invoking Abraham Lincoln.
Then he started talking about the women accusing him of sexual misconduct.
Trump called them liars.
He accused them of trying to destroy his campaign.
And he promised that once the election was finished, he would take them to court.
“All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”
It was an extraordinary detour at a location synonymous with one of the most consequential presidential speeches in American history.
“Hallowed Ground”
Trump began his remarks by acknowledging the significance of Gettysburg.
“It's my privilege to be here in Gettysburg, hallowed ground where so many lives were given in service to freedom.”
He invoked Lincoln and the divisions that had once torn the country apart.
Then Trump said:
“It is my hope that we can look at his example to heal the divisions we are living through right now.”
It sounded like the beginning of a speech about national reconciliation.
That tone did not last long.
Trump quickly moved from healing America's divisions to his own grievances.
“Every Woman Lied”
The appearance came during the fallout from the release of the 2005 Access Hollywood recording and a subsequent series of accusations from women who said Trump had subjected them to unwanted sexual contact.
Trump denied the allegations.
At Gettysburg, however, he went considerably further than a simple denial.
“Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign,” Trump said.
“Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never.”
Then came the threat:
“All of these liars will be sued after the election is over.”
The crowd applauded.
Trump wasn't merely saying the accusations were false.
He was announcing that the women making them could face lawsuits from him after Election Day.
He Blamed the Media Too
Trump then widened his attack.
He complained that a phone call to a major newspaper or television network could result in “wall-to-wall coverage” of an allegation against him.
He portrayed himself as someone with the resources necessary to fight back and suggested ordinary Americans could be vulnerable to the same forces.
The speech increasingly became an argument that Trump was being targeted by a hostile political and media system.
He also suggested the allegations themselves might have been politically orchestrated.
Trump claimed it was “probably the DNC and the Clinton campaign” that had put forward women with what he called fabricated stories.
He offered no evidence during the speech establishing that the Democratic National Committee or Clinton campaign had manufactured the women's allegations.
But Trump promised litigation would reveal the truth.
“We'll find out about their involvement at a later date through litigation,” he said.
Then he added:
“I so look forward to doing it.”
The Women Had Made Serious Allegations
Trump's targets weren't abstract political organizations.
They were individual women who had publicly accused a candidate for president of inappropriate or unwanted sexual behavior.
Jessica Leeds had alleged that Trump groped her while the two were seated beside each other on an airplane decades earlier.
Rachel Crooks alleged that Trump kissed her without her consent after she introduced herself to him at Trump Tower.
People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff alleged that Trump pushed her against a wall and kissed her without consent while she was reporting a story at Mar-a-Lago.
Other women had come forward with additional allegations.
Trump denied them.
The allegations remained allegations, not adjudicated findings at the time.
But Trump's response at Gettysburg was categorical:
Every woman was lying.
Every story was fabricated.
And the women would be sued.
Another Accuser Appears the Same Day
Only hours after Trump's Gettysburg appearance, another woman publicly accused him of misconduct.
Jessica Drake appeared at a Los Angeles news conference with attorney Gloria Allred.
Drake alleged that Trump had kissed and touched her without permission after meeting her at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006 and later offered her $10,000 to come to his room.
Trump's campaign denied the allegation, calling it false.
The timing was remarkable.
On the same day Trump promised lawsuits against his accusers, another woman stepped before television cameras and made another accusation.
From Lincoln to Lawsuits
The contrast between Trump's opening and what followed was difficult to miss.
He had invoked Abraham Lincoln.
He had talked about healing national divisions.
His campaign wanted the appearance to introduce Trump's “Contract with the American Voter,” an agenda describing what he intended to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.
Trump eventually did discuss policy.
He proposed congressional term limits.
He promised restrictions on lobbying.
He talked about trade agreements, energy policy, immigration, taxes, healthcare and the Supreme Court.
He promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
He promised construction of a wall along the southern border.
There was a substantial policy agenda in the speech.
But before much of America heard about it, Trump had created another headline himself.
He was going to sue his accusers.
A Campaign About Grievances
The Gettysburg speech also fit a larger theme developing during the final weeks of Trump's campaign.
Trump increasingly argued that powerful institutions were aligned against him.
He said the political establishment was corrupt.
He said the media were corrupt.
He repeatedly warned that the election was being rigged.
And now he suggested that women accusing him of misconduct might themselves be part of a coordinated political effort.
His supporters heard the argument as evidence that Trump was willing to fight institutions they distrusted.
His critics saw something very different: a presidential nominee responding to allegations from women by publicly threatening them with litigation.
The Setting Made It More Striking
Gettysburg wasn't just another campaign stop.
More than 150 years earlier, Abraham Lincoln had used the battlefield to deliver one of the most famous speeches in American history.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address contained only a few hundred words.
Its themes were sacrifice, equality, democracy and the survival of a divided nation.
Trump deliberately invoked Lincoln at the beginning of his own appearance.
Then, within the same speech, he called his accusers liars and announced plans to sue them.
The historical comparison was unavoidable precisely because Trump had chosen to make it himself.
The Policy Speech Becomes Another Trump Controversy
Trump's campaign had intended Gettysburg to focus attention on what a Trump presidency would actually do.
And eventually, Trump provided that agenda.
But the threat against his accusers competed with the policy proposals for attention.
The following morning, campaign manager Kellyanne Conway appeared on CNN and tried to redirect the conversation toward Trump's first-100-days plan, highlighting proposals on jobs, education, lobbying and other issues.
Yet she was also asked why a major policy speech at Gettysburg had begun with Trump attacking the media and his accusers.
Once again, Trump's own remarks had become part of the story his campaign was trying to tell.
“All of These Liars”
The women accusing Trump had put their names and reputations behind serious allegations.
Trump was entitled to deny those allegations.
He did.
But at Gettysburg he chose something more confrontational.
He called every one of them a liar.
He suggested political opponents may have been behind them.
And he publicly promised legal retaliation after the presidential election.
It happened at an appearance where Trump had just spoken about following Abraham Lincoln's example to “heal the divisions” facing the country.
Within minutes, the speech had moved from reconciliation to accusations, enemies and lawsuits.
That contrast became one of the defining images of Trump's Gettysburg appearance:
A presidential candidate standing near one of America's most revered battlefields, invoking Lincoln and national unity — and then promising that when the election was finished, the women accusing him would see him in court.