Donald Trump, says the New York Times, has gone totally rogue and is refusing the advice of pretty much everyone in order to continue his attacks on Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the Gold Star parents whose son sacrificed his own life to save fellow troops in 2004 in Iraq.
For days, Mr. Trump’s top advisers and allies have urged him to move on from the feud, which erupted when Mr. Khan criticized him at the Democratic convention, and focus instead on the economy and the national security record of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. Yet, facing outcry on the left and right, Mr. Trump has insisted to associates that he has been treated unfairly by Mr. Khan, the news media and some Republicans, said people familiar with the campaign’s deliberations who insisted on anonymity to discuss them.
Republicans now say Mr. Trump’s obstinacy in addressing perhaps the gravest crisis of his campaign may trigger drastic defections within the party, and Republican lawmakers and strategists have begun to entertain abandoning him en masse.
Trump's attacks have expanded beyond the Khans to any Republican—House Speaker Paul Ryan, Sens. John McCain and Kelly Ayotte—who has criticized him over the feud. Which has led to a new game plan among Republicans, according to the Times, which reports that Liesl Hickey, "a Republican strategist who led the party’s defense of its majority in the House of Representatives in 2014" is "quietly" circulating a "background plan" to Republican leaders and vulnerable incumbents telling them to feel free to ditch Trump to save their own skins. "Even if you were with Trump before," Hickey advises, "it doesn't mean that now you necessarily need to stay with him." Meanwhile, RNC head Reince Priebus is reportedly "furious" at Trump for attacking fellow Republicans. Now it seems they're looking for any justification they can find for abandoning their standard-bearer, the guy they celebrated just a few weeks ago at their red, white, and blue convention.
All of this, the Times says, seems to stem from Trump's anger that "reporters had overlooked the story of Patricia Smith, the mother of a serviceman killed in the attack in Benghazi, Libya, in order to highlight 'other people'—apparently a reference to the Khan family."
"They give her virtually no airtime, and they give other people unbelievable amounts of airtime," Mr. Trump said. "It's just so unfair. It's so unfair."
The Times doesn't bother to refute that claim from Trump, but it's kind of important, because it's total bullshit, too. All of the networks except Fox broadcast Patricia Smith's speech. What was Fox broadcasting? Bill O'Reilly, interviewing Donald Trump.