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Donald Trump Seeks Route Out of the Glare Donald Trump Says a Strong Defense Against Cyberattacks Is Essential
(about 7 hours later)
Looking to regain his footing after one of the most difficult weeks of his candidacy, Donald J. Trump will use a rally in Colorado on Monday to try to turn the tables on Hillary Clinton on the subject of incomes and wealth. HERNDON, Va. — Donald J. Trump on Monday called for strengthening the nation’s defenses against cyberattacks, saying that as president he would create a joint law enforcement task force to handle both cybersecurity as well as offensive cyber warfare.
Mr. Trump’s new front comes two days after a New York Times report on portions of his 1995 tax returns, which showed a substantial loss that meant he may have legally not had to pay federal income taxes for 18 years. Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee and real estate mogul, will try to move beyond the focus on those returns by highlighting how Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton made money after leaving the White House in 2001. “Cyberattacks from foreign governments — especially China, Russia, North Korea, along with nonstate terrorist actors and organized criminal groups — constitute one of our most critical national security concerns,” Mr. Trump told a group of retired military veterans on Monday. “The scope of our cybersecurity problem is enormous. Our government, our businesses, our trade secrets and our citizens — most sensitive information — are all facing constant cyberattacks and reviews by the enemy.”
“For too long, the Clintons have skated by without adequate attention being paid to how they went from being dead broke when they left the White House to being worth $100 million,” said Jason Miller, a senior communications adviser for Mr. Trump, accusing the couple of trading donations “for official access.” Mr. Trump, who once suggested that Russia hack Hillary Clinton’s emails, also stressed the importance of being able to wage “crippling” cyberattacks against the nation’s adversaries, calling it “the warfare of the future.” “We should turn cyber warfare into one of our greatest weapons against the terrorists.”
Mr. Miller also accused them of having “traded favors” and being “willing to do anything to make a buck.” Mr. Trump’s remarks came after a damaging week of largely self-inflicted missteps, underscored by a drop in many polls, which began last Monday with a shaky debate performance against Hillary Clinton and continued throughout the week to include a late-night Twitter rant against Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe who is Hispanic.
He added, “We’re going to start paying a lot more attention to how they made their money and how, if Hillary Clinton were to win the White House, it would be doing nothing more than hanging a big ‘for sale’ sign in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.” His comments Monday, which he delivered from Teleprompters before taking several questions from the friendly audience, seemed to be an effort to present a more disciplined front before the second presidential debate, which takes place on Sunday.
Mrs. Clinton’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, all but invited the Trump team to make the case. In the first debate, Mr. Trump had given a rambling response to a question about cybersecurity, ranging from fears of lone wolf hackers (“It also could be somebody sitting on their bed who weighs 400 pounds, O.K.?”) to his 10-year-old son’s technological prowess (“He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it’s unbelievable.”).
Invoking the losses in the 1995 returns, Ms. Palmieri said, “From his manufacturing of Trump goods overseas, to hiring of foreign workers, to stiffing of contractors, to shady international financial dealings, there is a lot to pore over with his business record, and we intend to do just that.” On Monday, Mr. Trump offered a more tightly focused speech on the need for increased cybersecurity. If elected, he said, he would instruct the Department of Justice to create a task force, in conjunction with international, federal, state, and local law enforcement, “to crush this still developing area of crime.” And he said he would ask his secretary of defense and the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to present recommendations “for strengthening and augmenting our cyber command.”
Mr. Trump’s campaign has tried to highlight donations to the Clinton Foundation or to the organizations that paid for Mr. and Mrs. Clinton’s speeches — his while Mrs. Clinton was serving in the Senate and as the secretary of state, and hers since leaving that post. But Mr. Trump has struggled to keep the spotlight focused on them, and he has instead become caught in a number of distractions. This time, he will draw attention to specific payments, according to Mr. Miller, and emphasize that he has created jobs. During the question-and-answer session, the Republican nominee addressed the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder, calling for a “very, very robust” mental health program for veterans. With that, Mr. Trump seemed to imply that handling the trauma of war is a question of strength.
The attack is another instance in a pattern where Mr. Trump responds to criticisms from his rivals by making an identical charge. “When you talk about the mental health problems, when people come back from war and combat, they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over,” he said. “And you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it.”
Mrs. Clinton will be in Ohio, where she will talk about changing corporate America’s culture and abuses of workers, a speech that seems almost certain to be aiming for a contrast with Mr. Trump. He also hinted at returning to criminal profiling, citing Israel as an example of a country that engages in successful profiling efforts, and called for a “more old-fashioned” method of law enforcement.
“You know in our country lately we’re more interested in protecting the criminals than we are in making sure that we’re strong and powerful and know what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re so, so interested in protecting criminals and people that want to do us harm, and I think that we have to go back to a little more old fashioned method of thinking, if that makes sense. I will appoint an attorney general who will reform the Department of Justice like it was necessary after Watergate.”