Trump moves to open warfare mode against Republican leaders

If Donald Trump has a comeback plan, it doesn't involve party unity.

Last night the Republican nominee unleashed yet another stream of combative tweets.

They followed a phone conference yesterday, in which House Speaker Paul Ryan (the highest-ranked elected Republican) told fellow Republicans in Congress that he would no longer defend or campaign for Mr Trump, although he still officially endorses him. Mr Ryan says he will now focus on defending the Republican majorities in the Senate (now under serious threat) and the House (probably safe).

The conference call followed a string of defections over the weekend as 12 of the 54 Republicans in the 100-member senate, including former presidential candidate John McCain said they would not vote for Mr Trump. All told, around 160 senior Republicans have broken with their candidate. 

3am eternal
On Twitter, Mr Trump had strong words for the group:

Our very weak and ineffective leader, Paul Ryan, had a bad conference call where his members went wild at his disloyalty.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2016

Disloyal R's are far more difficult than Crooked Hillary. They come at you from all sides. They don’t know how to win - I will teach them!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2016

The very foul mouthed Sen. John McCain begged for my support during his primary (I gave, he won), then dropped me over locker room remarks!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2016

With the exception of cheating Bernie out of the nom the Dems have always proven to be far more loyal to each other than the Republicans!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2016

He also appeared to relish the need to no longer appease Mr Ryan or Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, adding:

It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America the way I want to.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2016

That prompted US Today to respond with the droll headline "The shackles had been on?"

 A Wall Street Journal/NBC published yesterday — taken after the recording of predator sex comments went public but before the second debate — put Mr Trump 14 points behind Hillary Clinton in a two-way race, or 11 points behind when third-party candidates were included (he did claw back a little ground once post-debate polling was added, but still trailed by 11 points in a head-to-head race and 10 points in a four-way match-up).

The inter-party feuding is meat-and-drink to Mr Trump's core supporters, who are angry at status quo politics and relish his outsider status. But it will also hamper the candidate's attempts to win over the centre and hurt his campaign — which is leaning on the Republican National Committee to run many of its field offices — on a logistical level.

The New York Times today has Mrs Clinton telling voters, "I’m the last thing standing between you and the apocalypse."

That's not quite correct. If Mr Trump does somehow pull back his poll deficit and win the White House, it is likely gridlock will ensue thanks to nakedly hostile Republicans in the House and Senate.