Donald Trump laid out his plan for a "new deal for black America" on Wednesday, urging African American voters to "embrace a new direction."
In a speech in Charlotte, N.C., the GOP nominee aimed to gain traction with the black voters he has struggled to attract to his campaign with the election less than two weeks away.
"I want to talk about how to grow the African-American middle class, and to provide a new deal for black America," he said in a prepared speech.
"That deal is grounded in three promises: safe communities, great education, and high-paying jobs. . . . Every African-American citizen in this country is entitled to a government that puts their jobs, wages and security first."
He also denounced the "rigged system and failed thinking of yesterday" encompassed by rival Hillary Clinton.
"Her campaign offers only the depressing pessimism that says this is as good as it gets, that nothing can ever really change," he said. "Hillary has been there for 30 years and hasn’t fixed anything – she's just made it worse."
"African-American citizens have sacrificed so much for our nation . . . Yet too many African-Americans have been left behind," he added.
As part of his plan, Trump called for incentives to move companies into poor neighborhoods to bolster employment, help African-Americans get better access to credit and for cities to declare "blighted communities" disaster areas to help rebuild infrastructure.
He also said he'd support increasing the number of police officers in such areas, connecting a lack of officers to a rise in murder rate in major cities – and blamed Clinton for a "war on police."
"The war on police urged on by my rival is reckless, and dangerous, and puts African-American lives at risk," he said. "We must work with our police, not against them."
Trump has won 20 percent of the nonwhite vote in a recent CNN/ORC poll, 25 percent of nonwhite voters in Quinnipiac University's recent poll, and 17 percent in the recent Fox News poll, The Hill reported.
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