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These comments remind me of the judge comments which hurt him. The judge issue was poorly articulated, but his poll numbers weren’t good for a while there. He has since rebounded of course. These comments will run on loop with the media for as long as they can squeeze anything out of them. They will probably even make a Clinton campaign ad.

I went and saw what the father said, and he used the typical talking points about Trump. I understand Trump’s frustration, but I think this is the wrong approach. It might even hurt with some independents. The blow back on social media is vicious right now.

I’m not a Trump advisor (obviously), but if I were, I would tell him to respond by saying:

I appreciate the sacrifice that this young man made for our country. We are grateful for his service; he was a hero. I am sorry for their loss. I would like to make clear that the ban on immigration is related to countries that have a high incidence of terrorism. The United Arab Emirates is not one of those countries, and so the ban would not have affected Khan. The wall criticized is to stop illegal immigration on the Mexican border, not to keep legal immigrants like the Khan family out.

Right now, there is a problem with radical Islamic terrorism which is what Khan fought against and which is what has led to an increasing number of terrorist attacks. Hillary Clinton has not helped matters with her foreign policy. After she voted for the war to go into Iraq, she also supported pulling the troops out too soon - leading to the rise of ISIS. ISIS further spread through inept policies in Syria and Libya. The ban on immigration from countries with a high instance of terrorism is made to keep the same people that Kahn was fighting off of our shores - which is why he was fighting in the first place. It is important to ensure that the soldiers who died fighting radical Islamic terrorism, so that it did not spread and come to our shores, didn’t die in vain. Of course there are good Muslims like the Khan family, and we have to ensure with the ban from terrorist countries and proper vetting that the people who enter this country love America like the Kahn family and aren’t radical Islamic terrorists. That will make all families, including the Kahn family, safer.

(As far as the wife, I would not have said anything about her as she says that she didn’t speak because she starts to cry when speaking about her son.) I caught only part of it that night and thought it looked odd at the time that she was standing there in the background, but I understand. No point for Trump to question her as there is no political benefit.