Donald Trump has dismissed Barack Obama's time in the White House as a "disaster" after the US president said he was not fit to succeed him.
"He's been weak, he's been
ineffective," Republican candidate Mr. Trump said of Mr. Obama in a Fox News
interview on Tuesday.
Mr. Obama has questioned why Mr.
Trump's party hasn't disowned him.
Mr. Trump has also turned on two
senior figures in his own party who have publicly criticized him.
In an interview for the
Washington Post, he refused to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator John
McCain, who are up for re-election in November.
Republican donor backs Clinton:
Amid the feuding within
Republican ranks, prominent party donor and fundraiser Meg Whitman has publicly
endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton, saying Donald Trump's
"demagoguery" had undermined the national fabric.
"To vote Republican out of
party loyalty alone would be to endorse a candidacy that I believe has
exploited anger, grievance, xenophobia and racial division," she wrote on
Facebook.
"Trump's unsteady hand
would endanger our prosperity and national security. His authoritarian
character could threaten much more."
In other developments:
A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll
suggested Hillary Clinton had extended her lead over Mr. Trump to eight
percentage points, from six points on Friday
A federal judge who has been a
target of Mr. Trump's repeated scorn denied a media request to release videos of
the candidate testifying in a lawsuit about the now-defunct Trump University;
Mr. Trump's lawyers had argued the videos would have been used to tarnish his
campaign.
French President Francois
Hollande joined the chorus of criticism on Tuesday, saying that Mr. Trump made
people "feel nauseous".
He warned that a Trump
presidential election victory could herald a very strong turn to the right
around the world.
'Look at Ukraine'
 |
| Khizr Khan spoke out against Mr. Trump's policies at the Democratic National Convention |
Speaking to Fox, Mr. Trump said
Mr. Obama had been "the worst president, maybe, in the history of our
country".
Mr. Trump has also been condemned
for his comments that appeared to back the Russian annexation of Crimea.
But he retorted: "I believe
I know far more about foreign policy than he (Mr. Obama) knows.
"Look at Ukraine. He talks
about Ukraine [and] how tough he is with Russia. In the meantime they took over
Crimea."
Mr. Obama and Mrs Clinton, his
one-time secretary of state, had "destabilized the Middle East" while
putting the "country at risk" with Mrs Clinton's use of a private
email server, he said.
Mr. Trump is under fire for
attacking the parents of a dead US Muslim soldier after they criticized him at
the Democratic convention last week.
At the convention, Khizr Khan,
whose son died while serving in Iraq, criticized Mr. Trump's plan to temporarily
ban Muslims from entering the US.
Mr. Trump responded by attacking
the couple - who are called in the US a "Gold Star" family, the term
for families that have lost a close relative in war. Democratic and Republican
leaders as well as veterans' groups quickly condemned him.
"The Republican nominee is
unfit to serve as president and he keeps on proving it," Mr. Obama said on
Tuesday.
"The notion that he would
attack a Gold Star family that made such extraordinary sacrifices... means that
he is woefully unprepared to do this job."
New York Representative Richard
Hanna became the first Republican member of Congress to publicly say he would
vote for Mrs Clinton.
Mr. Hanna said Mr. Trump's
comments about the Khan family had been the deciding factor.
Until recently, many Republicans
opposed to Mr. Trump had stopped short of supporting Mrs. Clinton, saying they
would vote for a third party or "write-in" candidate.
Republicans not voting for Mr.
Trump: Barbara Bush, former first lady, Jeb Bush, former Florida
governor, 2016 presidential candidate William Cohen, former secretary
of defense Jeff Flake, Arizona senator
 |
| Donald Trump speaks to voters during a campaign event at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania August 1, 2016 |
Lindsey Graham, South Carolina
senator, 2016 presidential candidate Larry Hogan, Maryland governor John Kasich, Ohio governor, 2016
presidential candidate Mark Kirk, Illinois senator
Mitt Romney, former
Massachusetts governor, 2012 Republican presidential nominee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida
congresswoman Ben Sasse, Nebraska senator.
Republicans voting for Mrs
Clinton: Richard Armitage, former deputy
secretary of state Hank Paulson, former treasury
secretary Brent Scowcroft, former national
security adviser Richard Hanna, New York
congressman Meg Whitman, party donor and
fundraiser
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