TVC E. U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump ratcheted up tensions in his Republican Party on Tuesday, denying leading figures support in their re-election bids, while his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton won her first endorsement from a Republican lawmaker.
President Barack Obama blasted Trump as unfit to be president and questioned why any Republican would support the New York businessman seeking his first public office.
“The question I think that they have to ask themselves is, if you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable: Why are you still endorsing him?” Obama, a Democrat, said at a White House news conference with Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong.
Trump, a former reality TV star, has troubled many in the Republican establishment with his off-the-cuff, often insulting style, and controversial policies including a proposed ban on the entry of Muslims to the United States and his plan to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants.
The latest exchanges cast a shadow over the show of unity the party sought to project at the Republican National Convention that formally nominated Trump for president in July.
Interviewed by The Washington Post, Trump said he could endorse neither House Speaker Paul Ryan nor Senator John McCain, both of whom face Republican challengers in primary votes in their states ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.
Both lawmakers had rebuked Trump over his feud with the family of a slain Muslim-American Army Captain Humayun Khan.
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.
Trump praised Ryan’s opponent, Paul Nehlen, for running “a very good campaign.” Trump said Ryan had sought his endorsement, but that as of now he is only “giving it very serious consideration.”
