Donald Trump just suffered his most disastrous week yet

Things have gotten so bad for the celebrity billionaire that even top-of-the-shelf Republicans are turning on him.

A growing movement has launched for Republicans to line up behind Hillary Clinton, with party activists saying it’s time to put the country first.

On Tuesday, Rep Richard Hanna of New York became the first congressional Republican to announce he would vote for the Democratic presidential nominee over his own party’s.

In a widely-shared opinion piece, Mr Hanna said Mr Trump was “profoundly offensive and narcissistic... a world-class panderer, anything but a leader”. He went on to say he was “deeply flawed”, “self-involved” and “unrepentant”.

Citing the global controversy of Trump’s dispute with the Khan family, Mr Hanna concluded: “He is unfit to serve our party and cannot lead this country”, and confirmed he will vote for Mrs Clinton.

John Stubbs and Ricardo Reyes, who both worked in the White House under George W. Bush, are now actively recruiting others to back Hillary Clinton.
They founded a grassroots group, ‘Republicans for Clinton 2016’, saying the only way to defeat the “dangerous” and “completely irresponsible” nominee would be to cross parties for this election.

Former three-term Republican Senator Larry Pressler, Jeb Bush’s senior adviser Sally Bradshaw, Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman and former Treasury secretary for the Bush administration Hank Paulson have all also confirmed they will be voting for Hillary.

The polls are reflecting this growing sentiment, with Clinton breaking into a 10-point lead in today’s Fox News poll.
It all comes on the back of a disastrous week for the Republican presidential nominee, whose series of unfortunate actions have kept him in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.

THE KHANS

Donald Trump’s dispute with the Khan family has made global headlines over the past week. He continued to criticise Khizr and Ghazala Khan, even though his allies have repeatedly called on him to stop.

On the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Khizr Khan spoke emotionally of the sacrifice his son, Army Captain Humayun Khan, made for the country as an American Muslim, taking aim at Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US.

“Let me ask you, have you even read the United States constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy,” Mr Khan said, amid cheers. “You have sacrificed nothing.”
 

In response to the powerful speech, Trump stoked outrage by implying that Mr Khan’s wife was blocked from speaking while standing alongside her husband because of her religion.

He also questioned whether Mr Khan’s words were his own, asking if “Hillary’s scriptwriters” wrote the speech on live television.

John McCain later came out swinging against the Republican candidate, blasting him for his choice of words.

It didn’t help that Trump’s top spokeswoman, Katrina Pierson, blamed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for Khan’s 2004 death.

“It was under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that changed the rules of engagement that probably cost (Khan’s) life,” she told CNN.

Given this tragedy took place five years before Obama actually became president, it was confusing as well as outrageous.

Pierson later tried to clarify, saying her point was that Clinton voted for the Iraq war in 2002, while Obama “further restricted engagement in Afghanistan”.

It’s worth pointing out that, at least on one occasion, Trump also expressed support for the invasion of Iraq.

THE NON-ENDORSEMENT

Donald Trump infuriated party leaders yesterday after he declined to endorse his fellow Republican party members, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Arizona Senator John McCain, in their upcoming elections next week.

“I’m not quite there yet,” Mr Trump told The Washington Post.

The slap-in-the-face move was likely a deliberate choice of wording. Back in May, Mr Ryan said the same thing when asked if he would endorse Mr Trump for President. He eventually came through.

Trump’s refusal prompted Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence to break from the presidential nominee, and align himself with the Republican establishment, saying of Mr Ryan: “I strongly endorse his re-election. He’s a longtime friend, he’s a strong conservative leader.”

“THE DEVIL”

Earlier this week, Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton “the devil”.

Speaking at a rally on Monday, the extreme characterisation came as he criticised Bernie Sanders for endorsing the Democratic frontrunner.

“He made a deal with the devil. She’s the devil,” he told the crowd.

He’s since downgraded his tone. Two days later, he instead referred to Clinton as “the founder of ISIS”.

His extreme rhetoric has been a sore point for a lot of Republican leaders, who have expressed hope that he will dial it down and take a more civilised tone on the political stage.

Throughout this year alone, he’s deemed his opponent an “enabler” for her husband’s infidelity, “trigger-happy” on foreign policy, perhaps the “most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency of the United States” and a “dirty rotten liar”.

Comparing her to Lucifer himself is just another mark.

THE ‘SEXUAL HARASSMENT’ HYPOTHETICAL

Ivanka Trump hails her father as a feminist who made her the dynamic businesswoman she is today.

But one unfortunate answer ripped that positive description to shreds.

Earlier this week, Donald Trump told the NBC it was “very sad” that women at Fox News were “complaining” about being sexually harassed by Trump’s friend, former Fox chief Roger Ailes.

This prompted a hypothetical question from a USA Today columnist on what he’d say if Ivanka was the victim of sexual harassment in the workplace.

“I would like to think she would find another career or find another company if that was the case,” he replied.

So basically, his harassed daughter should drop her career and everything she has worked for, while the harasser gets off scot-free. Not to mention, most women aren’t in the same financial position Ivanka’s in - they can’t just leave one job, find another, and continue paying all their expenses in the interim.

When asked about the same topic later, Ivanka rapidly said sexual harassment was “inexcusable in any setting”. But the damage had been done.

THE PURPLE HEART

A veteran gave Trump his Purple Heart - a military decoration to those wounded or killed while serving the United States — at a campaign in Virginia.

Donald Trump publicly addressed the gift during the rally, throwing in a joke that was not well received in the context.

“You know something very nice just happened to me. A man came up to me and he handed me his Purple Heart,” Trump said.

“He said, ‘that’s my real Purple Heart I have such confidence in you.’ And I said, ‘Man that’s like big stuff. I’ve always wanted to get the real Purple Heart.’ This was much easier.”

The line was widely condemned. President Obama issued his strongest rebuke of the Republican frontrunner yet, calling him “unfit” and “woefully unprepared” to be president.

Sean Barney, a veteran wounded in Iraq who is now running for Congress in Delaware as a Democrat, called Trump’s remarks “flippant and repugnant”.

“As someone who fought for our country in Iraq, was injured, and was awarded a Purple Heart, I can tell you, no one should ever “want” to get a Purple Heart,” he said.

THE BABY

Donald Trump had a baby ejected from one of his rallies, after they began crying during his speech.

“Don’t worry about that baby. I love babies!” Trump said at first. “I hear that baby crying, I like it. What a baby, what a beautiful baby.”

Mere minutes later, after the baby cried once more, he changed his tune.

“”Actually, I was only kidding. You can get the baby out of here.”

Of the mother, he then said: “I think she really believed me that I love having a baby crying while I’m speaking.”

HOW HAS TRUMP RESPONDED?

The Republican frontrunner seems either vehemently denying or blissfully oblivious to the week he’s had.

Speaking at a rally in Florida, he said: “I just want to tell you the campaign is doing really well.

“It’s never been so well united... I would say right now it’s the best in terms of being united that it’s been since we began.”

He also said voters would pick him over Hillary Clinton because of his pledge to appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court.

“They have no choice,” Mr Trump said. “Even if you can’t stand Donald Trump, you think Donald Trump is the worst, you’re going to vote for me. You know why? Justices of the Supreme Court.”

His campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, chalked it all up to “another Clinton narrative that she put out there and the media is picking up on”.

But the growing displeasure among Trump’s own party suggests otherwise, and at this stage, it seems more and more likely that he’ll push others to breaking point.

Twitter: @GavinDFernando