Donald Trump Knows About Sacrifice, Sort Of. Maybe

One of the most moving speeches delivered at the Democratic National Convention last week came not from the party's nominee, but from the Muslim-American father of a soldier killed in the Iraq War. In a powerful rebuke of Donald Trump's increasingly anti-Muslim rhetoric, Khizr Khan spoke of the sacrifice his son, Army Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan, had made for America and questioned what the Republican nominee had given up. Well, according to Trump, a lot. Donald Trump responded to Khizr Khan's accusation he hadn't sacrificed anything for America in an interview with ABC Saturday.

Trump attempted to dismiss Khan's accusation in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, saying his employment of "thousands and thousands of people" was a sacrifice. "I think I've made a lot of sacrifices," Trump said. "I work very, very hard. I've created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I've had tremendous success. I think I've done a lot."

Although Trump didn't go into specifics about how his business ventures — all of which operate as for-profit enterprises — equated to personal sacrifice, he did imply a correlation between his business success and his role in building the Vietnam War memorial and fundraising for veterans.

Trump, however, reportedly told the Washington Post in 1984 that he'd only been asked to "lend his name" to the Manhattan commission behind the Vietnam War Memorial. At the time, Trump was being accused of failing to attend the majority of the commission's meetings by at least two other members.

The Republican nominee also attempted to discredit Khan with implications that his words were not his own. "Who wrote that?" Trump asked Stephanopoulos. "Did Hillary's script writers write it?" Trump also questioned why Khan's wife stood at her husband's side without speaking. "If you look at his wife, she was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably — maybe — wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me."

But in an interview with MSNBC on Friday, Ghazala Khan said she had chosen not to speak at the Democratic National Convention because she still has trouble keeping her composure while just looking at pictures of her son. "I was very nervous because I cannot see my son's picture — I cannot even come in the room where his pictures are," an emotional Ghazala told Lawrence O'Donnell. "That's why when I saw his picture at my back [on stage] I couldn't take it. It is very hard."