Gaffes, fire from senior Republicans put Trump in a slump

US President Barack  Obama has called Republican nominee Donald Trump “unfit to serve as president” and called on Republicans to not just criticise their nominee but also withdraw support.

US media is headlining the president’s comments, but they are the least of Mr Trump’s problems after a horror week that has seen Hillary Clinton open a steady lead in national and battleground state polls.

His ill fortune over the past few days (most of it self-inflicted) is too great for anything but a bullet-point catalogue, so here they are – The Donald’s greatest hits:

• Saying in an ABC interview that he would stop Russian President Vladimir Putin going into the Ukraine. Problem: Putin is already there. Russia went into the Ukraine and annexed Crimea in early 2014. Mr Trump later explained he was “thinking about something else” at the time. Making macho assertions is one thing, pig ignorance of basic geopolitical facts is another.
   
• His advice to daughter Ivanka if she faced sexual harassment at work: "Find another career or find another company". 

• His refusal to back down on his attacks on the parents of a Muslim-American war hero, US Army Captain Humayun Khan, who died in Iraq while protecting his fellow soldiers and who was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for bravery. He just can’t let it go.
   
• His attacks on Captain Khan’s mother and father have in turn led to sharply worded statements from Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, the two highest-ranked elected Republicans. Although he didn’t mention Mr Trump by name, Mr Ryan could not have been more cutting with his statement that “Many Muslim Americans have served valiantly in our military, and made the ultimate sacrifice. Captain Khan was one such brave example. His sacrifice – and that of Khizr and Ghazala Khan – should always be honored. Period.” Even one of Mr Trump's staunchest supporters, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, called attacks on the Khan family "inappropriate."
   
• Republican senator John McCain joined in, saying that although he had earned the Republican nomination, that did not give Mr Trump an "unfettered licence to defame those who are the best among us.” Senator McCain’s comments were amplified as media re-ran Mr Trump’s earlier comment that “I like people who weren’t captured” – a crass reference to the senator’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
   
• At a stretch (and it would be a stretch, given the sensitive war veteran subject matter), Mr Trump could use the attacks on him by Senators Ryan, McConnell and McCain to boost his “outsider” credibility. But even under that “best case” scenario, he faces the problem he’s in a growing cold war with the Republican establishment at a time he’s supposed to be mending fences. That matters because the disorganised, thinly-staffed Trump campaign desperately needs the Republican National Committee’s logistical help in the battleground states that will decide the campaign. Right now, he's going in the other direction, refusing to back McCain or Ryan in their respective state races.
   
• The question put to Mr Trump at the Democrat convention by Captain Khan’s father: “What have you sacrificed? You have sacrificed nothing and no one?” has seen the Republican nominee’s Vietnam record back in the spotlight. Mr Trump, backed by his wealthy and well-connected father, managed to dodge the draft five times. The New York Times has raised new questions over bone spurs in his feet, which earned a medical deferment but quickly cleared up after the war. Missing paperwork means there will be no clean resolution to this controversy.
   
• Mr Trump’s insistence on going off choosing bizarre lines of attack. His latest is an attempt to make financial links between the Clinton Foundation with ISIS. It will play well with his core supporters but to others it might seem a little nuts. The crazy conspiracy theories are even more confounding given there’s so much real-world material with which to undermine Mrs Clinton, including her misuse of a personal email server while secretary of state.
   
• Billionaire and former Republican mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, who appeared at the Democrat convention to endorse Hillary Clinton, reiterated his critique of the Republican nominee’s business acumen, saying: “Most of us who have our names on the door know that we’re only as good as our word. But not Donald Trump. Trump has left behind a well-documented record of bankruptcies, thousands of lawsuits, angry shareholders, and contractors who feel cheated, and disillusioned customers who feel ripped off. Mr Trump says he wants to run the nation like he’s run his business. God help us.”

• Warren Buffett, appearing on the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton, also criticised Mr Trump’s claimed business skills and called on him to release his tax return – something of a rallying cry for those who say Mr Trump is exaggerating his inherited wealth and trying to hide politically-embarrassing business connections.
   
• HP Enterprise chief executive and one-time Republican contender for California governor Meg Whitman came out in support of Hillary Clinton. The former Republican fundraiser called Mr Trump a demagogue and said she would give a “substantial” contribution to the Clinton campaign in order to stop Mr Trump, whom she berated as a threat to American democracy. “I will vote for Hillary, I will talk to my Republican friends about helping her, and I will donate to her campaign and try to raise money for her,” Ms Whitman told the New York Times.
   
• Richard Hanna has become the first Republican congressman to say he will vote for Hillary Clinton.
   
• Hillary Clinton has maintained her huge lead in money-raising. Her campaign raised $US90 million in July vs the Trump camp’s $36 million. After initially saying he would fund his own campaign, Mr Trump is now actively fundraising but he’s a long way behind and falling further behind, not catching up.

Mr Trump can’t be written off. We still don’t know how Wikileaks “Hillary leaks” series will play out (it has promised more revelations) and the Republican’s genius for capturing popular discontent can’t be underestimated. But as things stand today, ace statistician Nate Silver gives him only a 33.7% chance of being elected.

The brash New Yorker has started to talk about the election being “rigged.” Some see it as him laying the groundwork to explain a loss. 

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