Khan said the Constitution he waved before the cameras Thursday night came out of the boxes of 99-cent pocket versions that he orders from the American Bar Association to hand out to fourth-year cadets graduating from the University of Virginia’s ROTC program.

Every year since their son’s death, the Khans have invited the cadets to their house for hot dogs and burgers, to honor their son, a graduate of the program, and to give the students their first exposure to a Muslim home, to see “how similar it is to their own,” Khan said. “They’d feel like this is our aunt or uncle’s home. And I have cards from them, understanding the gesture of giving them the Constitution, because they were getting ready to take an oath to that Constitution.”…

For Trump, returning fire on the Khans was by instinct and practice the right thing to do. Beginning in the 1970s, Trump adopted the media strategy of his mentor, the tough New York lawyer Roy Cohn: when attacked, counterattack with overwhelming force. Trump studied and perfected the art of winning headlines in New York City’s tabloid newspapers, trumpeting the twists of his love life and delivering devilish blasts against his business competitors and political opponents to become a mainstay on the gossip pages and the front pages.

“The point is that if you are a little different, or a little outrageous, or if you do things that are bold or controversial, the press is going to write about you,” Trump wrote in his 1987 book, “Trump: The Art of the Deal.”