Story highlights President Donald Trump spoke to veterans Wednesday in a scripted address

His American Legion remarks marked a stark contrast to his Tuesday rally

Reno, Nevada (CNN) The morning after stoking the nation's divisions at a campaign rally in Phoenix, President Donald Trump struck a drastically different tone Wednesday and issued a call for national unity.

"It is time to heal the wounds that divide us and to seek a new unity based on the common values that unite us. We are one people with one home and one great flag," Trump told veterans at the American Legion convention here.

"We are not defined by the color of our skin, the figure on our paycheck or the party of our politics," he said. "We are defined by our shared humanity -- by our citizenship in this magnificent nation, and by the love that fills our hearts."

It was a dramatic departure from the vitriol Trump unleashed at a campaign rally Tuesday night in Arizona -- with the President sticking to his teleprompters Wednesday after ignoring them for at least part of the time Tuesday.

At the Phoenix Convention Center, a freelancing Trump dove deep into the culture war over Confederate statues, which has raged since white supremacists marched and clashed with anti-racist counter-protesters near the Robert E. Lee monument in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Read More