What is Donald Trump doing?

I mean seriously.

What. Is. Donald. Trump. Doing?

Having finally formally taken the nomination with enough of a post-convention poll and fundraising bounce to remain a serious threat to Hillary Clinton, he seems to now be doing everything possible to kill his own campaign.

Huh?

Now The Donald, as we know, can be a little "volatile" but his behaviour over the last week or so has been bordering on bizarre, even by his own very broad standards.

Here's a summary of ONE DAY earlier this week to put it in context.

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I know.

Let's backtrack a little and see if we can thread this together.

In spite of a divided Republican National Convention partly overshadowed by the Melania Trump plagiarism scandal, the Ted Cruz non-endorsement and the #neverTrump movement, the nominee was finally nominated and the polls bounced accordingly. We all moved on to the somewhat divided Democratic National Convention which was a spectacle in itself.

There was a pivotal moment on the last evening of the DNC when Khizr and Ghazala Khan stood on the stage and spoke about the death of their soldier son, Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004 trying to protect his troops from a suicide car bomber.

As his wife stood quietly by, Khizr Khan challenged Trump.

"You have sacrificed nothing and no-one," he said.

It's important to note that the Khans are a Gold Star family, a description reserved for those most respected Americans who have directly sacrificed a family member to war. They're untouchable.

It was an electrifying moment.

Standing in the crowd I looked around as people initially stood, as if stunned, and then roared in approval as Mr Khan held up a copy of the American constitution, challenging Trump's threat to restrict Muslim immigration and effectively questioning his credentials as a patriot.

Now, there are a few ways that Trump could have responded, but his choice to attack the Khans escalated the furore.

Mr and Mrs Khan are plainly anti-Trump, pro-Clinton Democrats to be sure.

They're also Gold Star, articulate, Muslim-American-Pakistani patriots and Trump's attacks have merely strengthened their position.

Trump, it's pretty clear, does not like losing arguments. The Khans won this one, and he's not happy, Jan.

So has everything that's come out of Donald Trump's mouth since been part of a gigantic temper tantrum?

Well …

Falling polls = cranky candidate = falling polls = see how this works?

Senior Republicans know well, and those who were variously cajoled or railroaded into supporting the most controversial of candidates in the first place are now wondering:

A) How to get him back on message

B) Whether to give up and jump ship

C) What on earth would happen if Trump's tantrum escalated to the point that he bailed out leaving the crippled GOP ship to sink on its own?

(Just on that – a candidate pulling out would be unprecedented and would have to be voluntary as there's no mechanism to remove him at this point. Replacing him would be highly complex to manage due to various conflicting state rules and deadlines so it would likely result in lawyers earning a lot of dosh. And Trump's campaign has said he's not considering bailing. So that's that, for today at least. We'll be keeping a close eye that way though.)

While Democrats, and specifically the Clinton campaign, look on agog at the Grand Old Party's self-destruction, senior Republicans like chairman Reince Priebus, have been described as 'apoplectic' and 'furious' amid party 'panic'.

This Washington Post headline is one of the week's more direct efforts.

Republicans nominate dangerously insane person to lead America, then panic when he proves he's dangerously insane

And this, also from the Washington Post, which it must be declared is one of Mr Trump's least favourite news outlets.

Is Donald Trump just plain crazy?

And we're calling this the quote of the week, courtesy of Australia's own Jonathan Swan who now follows political money trails for The Hill.

He came up with this cracker among others in an article that's well worth a look.

"I would break his f***ing thumbs if I could … because he can't stop f***ing tweeting," the Trump fundraiser said.

Ouch.

He said

"There is great unity in my campaign, perhaps greater than ever before." — Trump in Daytona in the closest thing resembling a response to party turmoil after a horror week.

She said

Not much – and she hasn't had to. Trump has grabbed all the attention for all the wrong reasons.

Some have gone so far to say it's one of the best weeks of Hillary's political life.

Where's Bernie?

Seriously?

After revving up the base at the Democratic National Convention last week, Bernie appears to have ridden off into the sunset of outer Vermont.

Yesterday, his campaign put out a call for more contributions to continue "Our Revolution".

Meanwhile, Democratic candidates up for re-election are asking the same question as they look for the popular septuagenarian to get involved in a number of down-ballot races.

VEEPstakes

Both Mike Pence and Tim Kaine have been out on the stump for their respective candidates and it's worth keeping a running tally on how they perform.

This week, Mr Pence gets the nod — despite the Washington Post releasing this tracker showing how he and Trump diverge in many major policy areas.

Mr Pence continues to tour the country (sometimes by motorbike) and at times seems to be running a parallel campaign to his running mate.

On Thursday, in North Carolina, Mr Pence parried questions from an 11-year-old about whether his role in a Trump administration would be to "soften up" Trump's stances and policies. Pence's response:

"Sometimes things don't always come out like you mean."

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Happy birthday, Mr President

Barack Obama turned 55 on Thursday – the last year he'll celebrate in the White House.

The good wishes came in from everywhere but these tweets from Bill Clinton and Vice-President Joe Biden take the cake.

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Video of the week

It's never too late to bust out video from the 1996 Democratic National Convention — particularly when it shows the delegates dancing the macarena and Hillary clapping along.

Cringe much?

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By the numbers

$27,000 – that's the amount third party Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson has bought in television/radio advertising in seven key states.

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The grass is greener in another poll

Speaking of third party candidates, Greens leader Jill Stein is doing better than expected, likely because both major party candidates are historically unpopular.

Mostly, Ms Stein polls at around 3 per cent nationally.

However, the campaign was very excited about this poll, which showed her clearly as the leader of the pack. There's a poll for everyone!

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Stein for President?

Knot bad

Hillary Clinton has repeatedly attacked Donald Trump's motto 'Make America Great Again' by suggesting he could start making his own campaign products in America again.

On Wednesday, the former secretary of state visited a tie company in Denver, Colorado.

The company had gone out of its way for the special guest, designing a couple of custom scarves for her including this gem, featuring some of the dogs the Clintons have owned over the past 25 years. Really.

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Ticker time

With fewer than 100 days until election day 2016 the countdown is officially on as far as cable TV is concerned.

CNN is already running a clock with Days:Hours:Minutes ticking down until polls open on November 8.

It's not a lot of time but it's long enough for just about anything to happen in American politics.

Oh, and if you need a back-up plan don't forget this guy. He now has lawn signs.

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Talk to y'all next week.

Zoe.