Donald Trump has hit out at the members of the Republican Party who are distancing themselves from him in the wake of his lewd and vulgar comments about women.
The remarks were made in a leaked tape dating back to 2005, and leading figures within the GOP have harshly criticised Trump since its release by The Washington Post. A number of them have also withdrawn their support for his bid to become president, including Sen. John McCain.
After Trump struggled to deal with the fallout from the tape and then held his own press conference with a number of women who have made accusations against Bill Clinton ahead of the debate on Sunday, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan also decided that he would draw a line in the sand.
On Monday, Ryan informed the Republican Party that he would no longer be defending Trump or making appearances with him, and that he would spend the remaining time left before the election to attempt to help his party perform well in down-ballot elections.
This distancing of the establishment from the nominee is an unprecedented move, and in a statement his spokesperson said: "The speaker is going to spend the next month focused entirely on protecting our congressional majorities."
Almost inevitably, this has lead to a tweetstorm from Trump, who dubbed Ryan "weak and ineffective", adding that the "shackles have been taken off" as he no longer has to answer to the establishment figures in the GOP.
Despite winning the second debate in a landslide (every poll), it is hard to do well when Paul Ryan and others give zero support!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2016
Our very weak and ineffective leader, Paul Ryan, had a bad conference call where his members went wild at his disloyalty.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2016
It is so nice that the shackles have been taken off me and I can now fight for America the way I want to.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2016
The Republican candidate also painted an unflattering portrait of his own party in contrast to the Democrats, who he claimed are "far more loyal to each other".
With the exception of cheating Bernie out of the nom the Dems have always proven to be far more loyal to each other than the Republicans!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2016
Disloyal R's are far more difficult than Crooked Hillary. They come at you from all sides. They don’t know how to win - I will teach them!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2016
Vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence stated that on Monday that he would be sticking with the campaign, but manager Kellyanne Conway seemed less certain in the wake of Trump's performance at the debate, stating she was with the campaign to the bitter end, "unless..."
Trump himself hinted that there may be more inappropriate tapes which are yet to be released, which could now prove to be a fatal blow to his White House hopes.