Washington: Abraham Lincoln is surely turning in his grave - on Saturday his would-be successor Donald Trump thought it just dandy to chuff off to the solemn turf of Gettysburg to unveil a "first 100 days" plan that included, God forbid, his threat to sue the 10 women who have accused him of a range of sexual assaults.
This was perverse on several levels. Most politicians in the midst of a campaign sue immediately when claiming that wrongful accusation might prevent them from winning. But Trump, the Republican presidential candidate who now seems assured of losing, insists that he'll deal with the women legally after the election.
But wouldn't you know it? Even as Trump's team was finessing its plan to borrow Lincoln's mantle to add gravitas to a lame repackaging of policy points, Trump victims 11 and 12 came forward - porn star Jessica Drake and Mexican Hollywood star Salma Hayek.
Each woman's account is infused with the line all the world heard Trump utter on the "grab-them-by-the-pussy" video - "when you're a star, they just let you do it".
Hayek's account, as told to the Spanish-language El Show del Mandril: Trump attempted to befriend her boyfriend as a ruse to get Hayek's phone number; on succeeding, he took to calling to ask her out; and it was when she informed him that even if she didn't have a boyfriend, she still would not go out with him, that Hayek felt the force of what she believed was Trump's retribution.
"He called, well he wouldn't say he called, but someone told the National Enquirer," which published a story saying that Trump wouldn't date Hayek because "I was too short".
Later Trump called her, leaving a message: "'Can you believe this? Who would say such a thing? No, I don't want people to think that about you' - he thought that I would try to go out with him so people wouldn't think that's why he wouldn't go out with me."
Drake's told a press conference with high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred in Los Angeles on Saturday that at a 2006 charity golf event at Lake Tahoe, California, she had accepted Trump's invitation to meet in his hotel room - but she asked two female friends to join her, because she did not want to go alone.
Trump had grabbed all three tightly, hugged and kissed them on the lips without permission, she said. Once she returned to her room, Trump or a man speaking on his behalf had called, offering her $US10,000 and the use of his private plane if she came back to his room and accompanied him to a party.
Neither Trump nor his campaign have responded to Hayek's story. Of Drake's story, the campaign said: "This story is totally false and ridiculous Mr Trump does not know this person."
In his Gettysburg address on Saturday, Trump showed that he was no Lincoln. Threatening his accusers, he said: "Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign. Total fabrication. The events never happened. All of these liars will be sued after the election is over."
To which the lawyer Allred responded: "Mr Trump, this morning you spoke at Gettysburg where many brave patriots fought and died. You have dishonoured their sacrifice by threatening wives, mothers and daughters who have made accusations against you."
Trump's "100 days" plan was billed by aides as a "groundbreaking contract with the American voter".
But apart from suing his female accusers, the only new elements in the plan shared with a small invitation-only gathering was that Trump as president would break up the media companies that have been reporting the women's accounts.
Trump is bigger at threatening to sue than actually suing. Ten days earlier, he was raising the rafters with his threats to sue The New York Times after it reported accounts by two of his accusers - nothing has happened.
And earlier in October, Trump harrumphed that he'd be suing the Times over its sensational report on pages leaked from Trump's 1995 tax return - nothing has happened.
In the last 30 years, Trump has made repeated threats to sue news outlets - but the last suit he actually filed was in 1984 and the court dismissed it.
However suggestions that the last thing that Trump wants is to be cross-examined on his sex or his tax might be grossly unfair. He could be very busy doing other things - there are rumours that he is modifying the design for the wall he proposes to build on the Mexican border to block illegal immigration.
It seems he's now asking the architects to include a small door - to give Hayek access to the US, in the event that she changes her mind.
