Donald Trump’s presidential campaign faced renewed scrutiny in August 2016 as the Republican nominee blamed unfavorable media coverage for his decline in the polls and prepared to lay out his foreign policy plans. In a series of tweets, Trump called the media “disgusting” and “corrupt,” accused reporters of protecting Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, and claimed he would be leading her by 20 percentage points if coverage were fair. He also complained that news outlets neglected the message, size and enthusiasm of his rallies.

Trump particularly attacked a New York Times report that described his campaign as struggling and quoted anonymous colleagues who portrayed him as exhausted and frustrated. He called the account fiction and suggested at a Connecticut rally that he might revoke the newspaper’s press credentials. His campaign had previously denied credentials to several other outlets. One opinion passage agreed that much of the media wanted Trump to lose, while arguing that Republican nominees before him had faced similar hostility.

Campaign chairman Paul Manafort also criticized news organizations, saying they had devoted too much attention to controversial Trump remarks and too little to his economic plan. Recent coverage had focused on Trump’s suggestion that Second Amendment supporters could “do something” if Clinton appointed liberal judges and his repeated false claim that President Barack Obama founded the Islamic State group. Running mate Mike Pence defended Trump, saying the candidate meant that Obama bore responsibility for the group’s rise.

Trump was expected to deliver a speech in Ohio proposing an end to nation building and a foreign policy focused on defeating the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations. Aides said he would advocate cooperating with countries that shared that goal despite other disagreements. He was also expected to propose withholding visas where adequate screening was impossible and introducing an ideological test for admission to the United States.

Clinton’s campaign was preparing its own initiatives. Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to join her in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and argue that Trump was dangerously unprepared on national security while presenting Clinton as a champion of middle-class jobs and education. Her campaign also launched a voter-registration effort tied to the anniversary of Obama’s program protecting some young undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children. Although those immigrants cannot vote, organizers hoped they would mobilize eligible Latino voters by highlighting Trump’s deportation promises.

Meanwhile, a New York Times investigation drew attention to Manafort’s consulting work for Ukraine’s pro-Russia political party and his ties to a network Ukrainian investigators said had been used to loot assets and influence elections. The report prompted online reaction when Corey Lewandowski, the former Trump campaign manager who had clashed with Manafort before being fired, shared a link to it.