TRUMP INFIGHTING OVERSHADOWS JABS AT CLINTON

PORTLAND, MAINE •Back on the defensive, Donald Trump’s campaign chief acknowledged conflict inside Trump Tower on Thursday as anxious Republicans struggled to shift voters’ attention to Hillary Clinton’s record on foreign policy.

The feud between the GOP’s presidential nominee and House Speaker Paul Ryan continued to overshadow the attacks on Clinton, underscoring rising concerns from party leaders over the New York billionaire’s unorthodox candidacy and its impact on the future of the Republican Party.

Trump refused for another day to endorse the Republican speaker.

Ryan, meanwhile, publicly declared his support for Trump, but said such endorsements aren’t “blank cheques” and pledged to speak out against the businessman’s divisive positions if necessary. Most recently, that means Trump’s sustained criticism of an American Muslim family whose son, U.S. army Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in Iraq.

“I don’t like doing this,” Ryan told a Wisconsin radio station. “I don’t want to do this, but I will do this because I feel I have to in order to defend Republicans, and our principles, so that people don’t make the mistake of thinking we think like that.”

Campaign chairman Paul Manafort insisted Trump would work with Ryan if elected, but he conceded the endorsement question had sparked tension inside Trump’s New York campaign headquarters. The day before, vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence broke with Trump and endorsed Ryan.

“There’s a conflict within the Trump campaign,” Manafort told ABC’s Good Morning America. “We’ve sort of had a rule of not getting involved in primaries because it’s usually not a good situation for the presidential candidate.”

As Republican infighting dominated the 2016 presidential race for another day, Trump and his Republican allies lashed out at the Democratic presidential nominee’s foreign policy record.

Specifically, they contended that Clinton was responsible for negotiations that led to a US$400-million payment to Iran earlier in the year. Trump has described the money as a ransom payment for four Americans detained in Iran, although the payment is a separate issue from the Iran nuclear deal that Clinton initiated.

As Trump used the issue to assail Clinton, he faced new questions about his Wednesday description of “a military tape” he suggested was taken by Iranian forces removing bags of money from a plane.

Several senior U.S. officials involved in the Iran negotiations said they weren’t aware of any such video.