Amid Republican backlash, Trump insists campaign is unified

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump insisted on Wednesday that his White House campaign was unified, even as he faced a strong backlash from some in his party over his insistent criticism of the family of a dead American soldier.

"There is great unity in my campaign, perhaps greater than ever before. I want to thank everyone for your tremendous support. Beat Crooked H!" the Republican nominee wrote on Twitter early Wednesday, referring to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The message belied the chaos that has erupted in the Republican Party after the New York real estate magnate engaged for days in a public dispute with the parents of the Muslim U.S. soldier who died in Iraq.

The uproar has led many Republicans to distance themselves from Trump and voice support for the Khan family. Several media outlets reported on Wednesday that the campaign was in disarray and that Trump had rejected advice from his staff to drop the battle with the Khans.

Trump hit back on Tuesday at critics in the Republican leadership and denied both House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator John McCain support in their re-election bids, in an interview with The Washington Post.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was "quite furious" with Trump's handling of the Khan situation and his failure to endorse Ryan comments, a Republican source told Reuters. ABC News reported that senior party officials were looking into options for the Nov. 8 election if Trump decided to drop out of the race.

The Trump campaign had no immediate comment on the reports. Trump loyalist Corey Lewandowski dismissed reports on Tuesday evening of dissent and disarray in Trump's camp.

"These people would climb over barbed wire for Donald Trump, chew on glass to make sure that they get him elected," Lewandowski, who was fired from the campaign in June, said on CNN.

But on Wednesday, an unidentified Trump campaign source told MSNBC the unrest inside the campaign was "way worse than people realize."

Late on Tuesday, Meg Whitman, a prominent Republican fundraiser and chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise , endorsed Clinton's White House bid, calling Trump an "authoritarian character" and a threat to democracy.

In an interview with The New York Times, Whitman said it was time "to put country first before party."

Trump has had a running dispute with Khizr and Ghazala Khan since they took the stage at last week's Democratic National Convention to cite their son's sacrifice and criticize Trump's proposal to combat terrorism by temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States.

Many Republican leaders, including Ryan and McCain, have criticized Trump's attacks on the parents of Army Captain Humayun Khan, who received the Bronze Star Medal after being killed in a car bomb in Iraq in 2004.

TIDE OF CRITICISM

Even Trump's longtime ally, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, said it was inappropriate to criticize the Khan family. Also on Tuesday, Representative Richard Hanna of New York became the first Republican in Congress to endorse Clinton, although several other Republicans in Congress have said they will not support Trump.

The dispute over Trump's treatment of the Khans, coming just two weeks after he was formally anointed the White House nominee at the Republicans' convention, was the latest rift in a party already frayed by internal dissent over Trump.

A former reality TV star who has never held public office, Trump swept aside 16 rivals to win the party primary contests, winning support particularly from white blue-collar workers who feel neglected by the political establishment.

His plans have included the ban on Muslims and building a wall along the Mexican border to keep out illegal immigrants. He has also proposed renegotiating trade treaties, opening up to Russia, revamping NATO and has suggested Japan and South Korea should get nuclear weapons.

Trump's incendiary and often off-the-cuff rhetoric on Muslims, women and Mexican immigrants has drawn widespread criticism, including from some Republicans.

On Tuesday, Democratic President Barack Obama unleashed his strongest attack yet on Trump, calling him unfit for the presidency and asking Republican leaders why they continued to endorse him given their repeated criticisms of his actions.

Opinion polls have shown Clinton benefiting from a boost after her party's convention last week. The RealClearPolitics average of recent national opinion polls put her 4.5 percentage points ahead of Trump, at 46.5 percent to 42 percent.

(Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson; Writing by Doina Chiacu and Frances Kerry; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)