Top Trump aide acknowledges campaign split over backing Ryan

Trump, a NY developer making his first run at public office, has made traditional Republican donors uneasy with inflammatory statements about women, Mexicans, Muslims and war veterans, among others.

“I feel like I need to do something more than quietly pulling the lever”, he said. “The campaign is in very good shape”, he said, “We are organized, we are moving forward and the Clinton machine may not like it, but we’re prepared for the fight”.

Trump’s stunning slap at two of the nation’s most prominent Republicans dramatically escalated GOP turmoil barely a week after a convention meant to promote party unity.

Some party loyalists are scrambling to try to course correct Donald Trump’s erratic presidential campaign after the nominee suffered a startling number of self-inflicted campaign wounds in just the kick-off week of the general election race.

Trump has faced a barrage of criticism in recent days from political allies as well as opponents after he criticized the parents of U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004.

Mirroring the language Ryan used about supporting Trump before his eventual endorsement, Trump told the newspaper he was “not quite there yet” in endorsing Ryan, the highest ranking elected Republican, in next Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary.

Like Fleischer, he does not plan to follow Bradshaw out of the party, but insisted that Trump must work harder to unify it.

Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross said he still backed Trump, but urged him to stop engaging in exchanges that benefit the Democrats and make the real estate mogul’s behaviour the issue in the campaign. Sixty percent of Clinton’s supporters and 57% of Trump’s supporters say they don’t mind if others know which candidate they prefer, but don’t go out of their way to share that information.

Hanna’s retirement gives him the leeway to risk upsetting colleagues and voters.

“We come out of the Democratic National Convention with our party united and our supporters energised for the final 98 days of this campaign”, said Hillary for America Campaign Manager Robby Mook.

The uproar has led many Republicans to distance themselves from the NY businessman and voice support for the Khan family.

Trump also talked about the Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday night, exposing that the Obama administration paid $400 million to Iran at the time four American hostages were released fromTehran.

Although many traditional Republican donors have been leery of investing money in the magnate’s campaign, those who have chosen to finance Clinton’s are even fewer.

Trump shocked Republican leaders yet again this week when he refused to declare support for Ryan, instead stating that “I’m just not there yet”. Trump said the grieving father had “no right” to criticize him, only later acknowledging their son is a hero.

About 43 per cent of likely voters favour Clinton, 35 per cent favour Trump, and 9 per cent picked “Other”, according to the July 28-Aug 1 online poll of 1289 likely voters.

Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRKa.N, scorned Trump’s 1995 move to list Trump hotels and casino resorts on the New York Stock Exchange, saying it lost money for the next decade and that a monkey would have outperformed Trump’s company. During the campaign, she called for tougher sanctions against employers who hire illegal workers, but her campaign suffered after it was revealed that she employed an illegal immigrant maid from Mexico for nine years.