Paul Brandus

At Gettysburg, a land sanctified by blood and arguably the most magnificent and consequential words ever uttered by an American president, Donald Trump — who fourscore and 17 days ago accepted the nomination of what used to be Abraham Lincoln’s party — invoked his name as he described what he would do if given the Great Emancipator’s job.

That Trump ventured to hallowed ground once trod upon by Lincoln naturally invites comparisons. One Trump supporter asked his Twitter followers to vote on who gave the better speech at Gettysburg. Trump won, of course, by a landslide. Talk about rigged.

Not that there weren’t similarities. Both men spoke on days ending in the letter “y.” Both were in Pennsylvania, and the weather was good. It was pretty nice on Saturday, and when Lincoln visited on Nov. 19, 1863, "the sky was cloudless,” one eyewitness said, "and the sun shone out in glorious splendor.” But that’s about it.

Lincoln uttered about 275 words in fewer than three mesmerizing, poignant minutes. “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,” he said humbly. He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Trump began by spending four times as long — 13 minutes — listing his grievances. He singled out all the women who have accused him of improper behavior or sexual assault. On the very day he was channeling his inner Lincoln, a former porn actress named Jessica Drake said Trump offered her $10,000 to come back to his room after they met in Lake Tahoe in 2006. Perhaps he wanted to show her his big hands, but I could be wrong. In any case, Drake, whose credits include Sex for Sale, said no thanks.

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Trump said that he has never heard of Drake and that like all the others (there are at least 11 now), she’s lying. "Total fabrication. The events never happened. Never. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over,” he vowed.

Not exactly Lincolnesque.

Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War, but this wasn’t necessarily evident when Lincoln appeared. He spoke with humility and doubt about whether the American Experiment would survive. “We are engaged in a great civil war,” he said solemnly, “testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” He hoped his words would ease the nation’s grief. He was burdened by division and hatred and sought to end it.

“President Lincoln served in a time of division like we've never seen before,” Trump said, adding, in a rare display of eloquence, “It is my hope that we can look at his example to heal the divisions we are living through right now. We are a very divided nation.”

Trump should know. He has spent a year and a half dividing it.

Lincoln dreamed, prayed for a nation “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Trump, with his religious tests, misogyny and ethnic stereotyping, thinks some are more equal than others. His own words imply a government “of the hateful, by the hateful, for the hateful.”

“It is my privilege to be here in Gettysburg, hallowed ground where so many lives were given in service to freedom,” he said. A nice sentiment that he then trampled on by saying that the democracy so many died for is a sham — broken, rigged and conspiring specifically against him.

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Trump thinks about Lincoln a lot. He has said more than once that he would be the greatest president America has ever seen, except for Honest Abe. That's about as laughable as it gets, until you consider what Donald Trump Jr. said last week: that given the scope of his dad’s career, the presidency would be a “step down.”

I’ve got news for you, son. George Washington, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, and, yes, Abraham Lincoln, didn’t consider the presidency a step down. For them and all the others, it was the greatest privilege and honor of a lifetime.

Men have come to the presidency from many walks of life but always with a record of public service, a deep sense of humility and abiding faith in the American people. Trump brings none of this to the table.

To sit behind that great desk in the Oval Office is something that only five men in the world can truly understand. It’s worth noting that of those five sitting and former presidents, who represent both political parties going back four decades, not one considers Junior’s father worthy of the office.

Paul Brandus, founder and White House bureau chief of West Wing Reports, is the author of Under This Roof: The White House and the Presidencyand a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter @WestWingReport.

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