IF YOU SOMEHOW managed to miss all of the comments Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made this week, you have a lot to catch up on.
Trump has come under criticism from President Obama, former Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain, a Muslim couple whose son was killed in the Iraq war, as well as ordinary voters.
However, he’s also been publicly endorsed by Clint Eastwood, who said in an interview with Esquire that Trump is “just saying what’s on his mind”:
[Trump]‘s onto something, because secretly everybody’s getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. That’s the kiss-ass generation we’re in right now… Everybody’s walking on eggshells.
So if you haven’t had a chance to read up on what Trump has said over the past week, here’s our roundup of his most notable comments of the week.
Last weekend: “She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say”
After lawyer Khizr Khan made this impassioned speech at the Democratic National Convention, Donald Trump criticised him, hinting that his wife Ghazala ”maybe wasn’t allowed to speak”.
In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Trump said:
If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.
Tuesday: “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.”
When he appeared onstage to address a crowd at a High School in Ashburn, Virginia, Trump began his speech by saying that a man had gifted him his Purple Heart, a badge awarded to the families of soldiers killed or soldiers wounded in action.
Trump then said that he asked the man if it was the “real one or a copy”:
He said that’s my real Purple Heart; I have such confidence in you. And I said man, that’s like – that’s like big stuff. I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.
This, coupled with criticisms of the Khans, prompted various military and veterans’ groups to strongly criticise Trump.
Tuesday again: “We need very, very strong leadership. And I’m just not quite there yet.”
In an interview with the Washington Post, Trump refused to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan or Senator John McCain, despite both leading figures in the Republican party supporting Donald Trump as their party’s presidential candidate.
Trump then praised Ryan’s underdog opponent, Paul Nehlen, for running “a very good campaign” and said of Ryan:
I like Paul, but these are horrible times for our country. We need very strong leadership. We need very, very strong leadership. And I’m just not quite there yet. I’m not quite there yet.
Wednesday: “I was only kidding, you can get the baby out of here.”
After a baby started crying during a speech he was giving in Virginia, Trump reassured the mother, who assumedly had begun to leave the room, that there was no need to panic, and that “he loved babies”.
When she remained in the room, he changed his mind, telling either the mother (or his security perhaps?) to “get that baby out of here”.
A snapshot of his immigration policy?
Thursday: “Iran provided all of that footage of taking that money off that airplane.”
On Tuesday, it was revealed that the US had paid Iran $400 million in cash in January, around the same time four Americans were released in Tehran. President Barack Obama has vigorously denied the payment was a ransom to secure their release.
After the news broke, Trump claimed to have seen footage of the plane landing in Iran, and money being loaded off the plane.
I’ll never forget the scene this morning Iran – I don’t think you’ve heard this anywhere but here – Iran provided all of that footage, the tape, of taking that money off that airplane.
What’s remarkable about this comment is that Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks later clarified to The Washington Post on Thursday that Trump was actually talking about a widely shown video of a private plane carrying the four US hostages landing in Switzerland.
On Thursday, Donald Trump said:
It was interesting because a tape was made, you saw that? With the airplane coming in? Nice plane. And the airplane coming and the money coming off, I guess. That was given to us, has to be, by the Iranians.
On Friday, Trump admitted that he made a mistake when he made the above comment:
All week: Accusations against the Democrats
All or some of the above comments would lead some to vote Democrat in the US election in November (a decision that even some Republicans are reluctantly considering).
But it’s not as simple as that. A lot of US voters trust Hillary much less than they do Trump – partly because she has a political history to judge. Controversies surrounding her past support for the Iraq war, and the mystery around confidential security-related emails that were sent to her personal email account and then deleted have left voters reluctant to vote for a figure associated with the political elites.
Trump has, as you would expect, honed in on this mistrust in an effort to win votes, and has accused American media outlets of being biased towards Hillary:
A regular user of Twitter, Trump has used the platform to criticise what he sees as the media’s decision not to investigate controversies surrounding Hillary Clinton and where the donations to her campaign are coming from.
Chances are that by the time you’re reading this, a new comment from Trump will already be making headlines.
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