Donald J. Trump
reeled on Sunday amid a sustained campaign of criticism by the parents
of a Muslim American soldier killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq and a
rising outcry within his own party over his rough and ethnically charged
dismissal of the couple.
The
confrontation between the parents, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, and Mr.
Trump has emerged as an unexpected and potentially pivotal flash point
in the general election. Mr. Trump has plainly struggled to respond to
the reproach of a military family who lost a son, and has answered their
criticism derisively — first implying that Ms. Khan had been forbidden
to speak at the Democratic National Convention, then declaring that Mr.
Khan had “no right” to question Mr. Trump’s familiarity with the
Constitution.
And
Mr. Trump’s usual political tool kit has appeared to fail him. He
earned no reprieve with his complaints that Mr. Khan had been unfair to
him; on Sunday morning, he claimed on Twitter
that Mr. Khan had “viciously attacked” him. Mr. Trump and his advisers
tried repeatedly to change the subject to Islamic terrorism, to no
avail.
Instead,
Mr. Trump appeared to be caught on Sunday in one of the biggest crises
of his campaign, rivaling the uproar in June after he suggested a
federal judge, Gonzalo P. Curiel, was biased because of his Mexican
heritage. By going after a military family and trafficking in religious
stereotypes, Mr. Trump once again breached multiple norms of American
politics, redoubling pressure on his fellow Republicans to choose
between defending his remarks or breaking publicly with their nominee.
Mr.
Trump also risked reopening controversies related to religious
tolerance and military service: His treatment of the Khans has brought
on a new wave of criticism of his proposal to ban Muslim immigration,
and of his mockery of Senator John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
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