Trump tells St. Augustine crowd: 'We're winning'

Thousands at rally at St. Augustine Amphitheater

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A defiant Donald Trump blamed his worsening campaign struggles on "phony polls" from the "disgusting" media during a rally Monday afternoon in St. Augustine, fighting to energize his most loyal supporters.

"In case you haven't heard, we're winning. Not just in Florida, but the whole thing," Trump said. "We're going to take our nation back. Together we're going to fix our rigged system."

Trump cited an Investor's Business Daily's recent nationwide poll that he said showed him 2 percentage points ahead of Hillary Clinton. [Read: IBD/TIPP poll]

Just 14 days until the election, the Republican nominee campaigned in battleground Florida as his team conceded publicly as well as privately that crucial Pennsylvania may be slipping away. That would leave a razor-thin pathway to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House on Nov. 8.

Despite continued difficulties with women and minorities, Trump refuses to soften his message in the campaign's final days to broaden his coalition. The strategy leaves no margin for error. Yet Trump offered an optimistic front in the midst of a three-day tour through Florida as thousands began voting in person.

A day after suggesting the First Amendment to the Constitution may give the press too much freedom, he insisted that the media are promoting biased polls to discourage his supporters from voting.

"The media isn't just against me, they're against all of you," Trump told cheering supporters at the St. Augustine Amphitheater. "They're against what we represent."

Early voting by mail has been underway for weeks. Nearly 1.2 million voters in Florida have already mailed in ballots. The state has about 12.4 million registered voters. Both parties are going after the nearly 3 million independents in the state.

Trump's asked the crowd Monday how many people had already voted.

"Leave here and vote or we've wasted a lot of time, and in my case, a lot of money," Trump said.

UNCUT: Donald Trump's speech in St. Augustine
SLIDESHOW: Images of Trump rally at amphitheater
RELATED: Trump meets with first responders, speaks with Kent Justice

Trump spent the weekend in Florida and headed to Tampa after the St. Augustine rally. Clinton is due in at Broward College in Coconut Creek Tuesday afternoon and in Lake Worth and Tampa on Wednesday.

Before Trump spoke Monday, some prominent Republicans from northeast Florida spoke, including U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, who is running for re-election in the 6th Congressional District, and former Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford, who is running in the 4th Congressional District.

During his remarks, Rutherford also took a shot at Hillary Clinton’s issues with the confidential emails and the FBI,  saying, "I put people in jail for doing a lot less."

Outside the amphitheater, about a dozen protestors held signs that bashed the Republican nominee. 

Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway outlined a path to 270 electoral votes on Sunday that banks on victories in Florida, Ohio, Iowa and North Carolina, along with New Hampshire and Maine's 2nd Congressional District. Assuming Trump wins all of those -- and he currently trails in some -- he would earn the exact number of electoral votes needed to win the presidency and no more. 

Noticeably absent from the list was Pennsylvania, a state that a top adviser privately conceded was slipping away despite Trump's aggressive courtship of white working-class voters. The adviser spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions.

Florida was largely the focus on Monday as in-person early voting began across 50 counties, including the state's largest: Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach, and all of northeast Florida except Columbia and Union counties, which will begin voting on Saturday.


About the Authors:

Scott is a multi-Emmy Award Winning Anchor and Reporter, who also hosts the “Going Ringside With The Local Station” Podcast. Scott has been a journalist for 25 years, covering stories including six presidential elections, multiple space shuttle launches and dozens of high-profile murder trials.

Kent Justice co-anchors News4Jax's 5 p.m., 10 and 11 p.m. newscasts weeknights and reports on government and politics. He also hosts "This Week in Jacksonville," Channel 4's hot topics and politics public affairs show each Sunday morning at 9 a.m.