Donald Trump tests the teleprompters and microphones on stage at the start of the final day of the Republican National Convention. | Getty Leaked document: Trump will tell the nation, 'I am your voice' In draft of speech, GOP nominee paints dark picture of America's safety.

Donald Trump will present himself as a big-hearted champion of the everyman on Thursday night as he accepts the Republican Party nomination for president, tempering his hard-edged policies with a protective embrace of those down on their luck.

“I have visited the laid-off factory workers, and the communities crushed by our horrible and unfair trade deals. These are the forgotten men and women of our country. People who work hard but no longer have a voice. I am your voice,” Trump plans to say, according to a copy of the speech viewed by POLITICO.


“I have embraced crying mothers who have lost their children because our politicians put their personal agendas before the national good,” he plans to say, adding, “I have no patience for injustice, no tolerance for government incompetence, no sympathy for leaders who fail their citizens. When innocent people suffer, because our political system lacks the will, or the courage, or the basic decency to enforce our laws – or worse still, has sold out to some corporate lobbyist for cash – I am not able to look the other way.”

The billionaire businessman, however, will combine those gentler overtures with his tougher talk, pushing himself as a leader who can bring law and order to a country victimized by corrupt businesses and illegal immigrants.

Trump declares "I am your voice" throughout the speech.

Blending Nixonian imagery of a dark, divided America and a messianic self-conception of himself as a great leader, the 70-year-old billionaire will accept the Republican Party's presidential nomination and declare himself to be the only candidate capable of solving the country's problems.

"I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves," Trump says, according to the draft, time-stamped Thursday afternoon. "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it."

Trump's speech, which one campaign source said was "being guarded like the Colonel's secret recipe," should offer a cleaner, crisper articulation of his most deeply held policy positions -- his opposition to free trade, his commitment to securing the country's borders and cutting off the flow of undocumented immigrants and his commitment to strengthening the country's military and giving more resources to local law enforcement agencies.

"The first task for our new Administration will be to liberate our citizens from the crime and terrorism and lawlessness that threatens their communities," the draft of the speech says ahead of specific references to recent fatal shootings of police officers in Dallas, Baton Rouge and other cities.

Trump will also promise to take the fight to Hillary Clinton.

"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 will say. "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 the disasters unfolding today."

The speech also calls upon disgruntled Bernie Sanders supporters and other Democrats to join a common cause.

"I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders – he never had a chance. But his supporters will join our movement, because we will fix his biggest issue: trade," Trump will say. "Millions of Democrats will join our movement, because we are going to fix the system so it works for all Americans."

The speech brings to a close four chaotic days on the banks of the Cuyahoga that began with a delegate uproar, continued with a plagiarism scandal and exploded over Ted Cruz’s defiant snub. Even as Trump and the Republican National Committee quelled factions who had long plotted to deny him the nomination, the task of unifying the party with vice presidential pick Mike Pence remains.

Trump had promised a big, sprawling address, hammering home his proposals on issues like national security, tax cuts and, more broadly, his recent declaration that unlike Clinton, he is the “law and order candidate.”

"This is going to be a speech that is going to be relatively long speech,” Trump told Bill O’Reilly in a telephone interview Monday as the first night of the convention unfolded. “I have many themes and one of them obviously is law and order and that's coming up more and more. I'm coming up more strongly about it when you see what's going on with everything.”

Then came his wife Melania’s speech.

As plaudits rolled in for her heartfelt and well-received address, a laid-off journalist working at a Starbucks in California discovered several glaring similarities between Melania Trump’s speech and Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech to the Democratic convention.

In the 36 hours that ensued, the Trump campaign fought back against allegations of plagiarism, including an accusation that Hillary Clinton’s team played a role in planting the story. Donald Trump Jr.’s speech drew scrutiny on Tuesday after it was found to bear a resemblance to a Frank Buckley article that appeared in the American Conservative, but Buckley was quick to note that he worked on Don Jr.’s speech himself.

By Wednesday, after some of the initial sizzle had subsided, Trump took to Twitter to defend his wife’s honor. And the Trump campaign released a statement from longtime Trump staff writer Meredith McIver, who wrote that she offered her resignation but that Trump refused to take it.

"She’s been with me a long time,” Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday as the campaign sought to defuse the situation once and for all. “She’s a very good person. She came to see me because she hated to see the conflict. And she made a mistake. And, you know, people make mistakes. You’ve made mistakes. We all make mistakes.”

Wednesday night, which promised to be Pence’s breakout night on the national stage, was largely overshadowed by Cruz instructing Americans to “vote your conscience” while declining to endorse Trump. Trump brushed off the slight, tweeting that he had seen the speech ahead of time and decided to let Cruz go ahead. “No big deal!” he later tweeted.

And for Trump’s eldest son, who himself broke out onto the national political stage earlier this week, the Cruz-induced cacophony was only a harbinger of better days ahead.

“The best unity I saw,” Trump Jr. told Sean Hannity, “was everyone booing him off the stage because I think everyone else in here has the sense to realize that the No. 1 goal is to make sure we beat Hillary Clinton.”

Julia Ioffe contributed to this story.