‘Maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say’

And Trump added to the insult by suggesting the wife of Khizr Khan — whose son died in Iraq — had stood by his side saying nothing because she was not “allowed” to speak.

“I’d like to hear his wife say something,” he told a New York Times reporter.

Khizr Khan accused the Republican presidential nominee of vilifying American Muslims in a steely rebuke that electrified the Democratic convention on Thursday.

“Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America,” Khan said to Trump.

“You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”

Among Trump’s more controversial policy positions has been his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States and suggestions he would back profiling them.

Khan, his wife, Ghazala, at his side, demanded in his speech that Trump read the Constitution when considering his proposal to bar Muslims from the country, pulling a copy of the document from his pocket and offering to lend it to the Republican nominee.

Had Trump’s policies been in place, Khan said, his family wouldn’t have been in the country, and his son Humayun Khan would not have served in Iraq, giving his life to save his men.

“You have sacrificed nothing and no one,” Khan said to Trump.

Trump brushed off Khan’s words in an interview with ABC News, stating that he thinks he has made “a lot of sacrifices”.

“I work very, very hard. I’ve created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I’ve had tremendous success. I think I’ve done a lot.” The brash billionaire has alienated many Americans with insults against immigrants, Muslims and women during his nomination campaign.

Trump also questioned whether his rival, Hillary Clinton, was behind Khan’s address, which the father said he wrote with his wife Ghazala.

“Who wrote that? Did Hillary’s script writers write it?” Trump said in the interview.

“If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say,” Trump said, adding that “maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say.”

“She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me,” Trump said. “But a plenty of people have written that. She was extremely quiet, and it looked like she had nothing to say. A lot of people have said that.”

Clinton released a statement defending the Khans as “the best of America”.

“I was very moved to see Ghazala Khan stand bravely and with dignity in support of her son on Thursday night,” Clinton said.

“This is a time to honour the sacrifice of Captain Khan and all the fallen. Captain Khan and his family represent the best of America, and we salute them.”