Fifty senior Republican national security officials have a released a statement saying they could not support Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump because he "would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being". 
Trump "would be the most reckless president in American history," said the officials, many from the George W. Bush administration. 
Trump, the statement warns, has "demonstrated repeatedly that he has little understanding" of America's "vital national interests, its complex diplomatic challenges, its indispensable alliances and the democratic values" on which US foreign policy should rest. 
And "Trump has shown no interest in educating himself," the statement said. 
Trump wasted no time fighting back. He called the officials "the ones the American people should look to for answers on why the world is a mess, and we thank them for coming forward so everyone in the country knows who deserves the blame for making the world such a dangerous place". 
He said they were "nothing more than the failed Washington elite looking to hold onto their power". Trump also blamed them for permitting "the rise of ISIS". 
The statement is an extraordinary move by senior members of his own party. Among the statement's signers are Former CIA and National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden, John D. Negroponte, the first director of national intelligence and Robert B. Zoellick, a former deputy secretary of state and World Bank president, and Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, two former Homeland Security chiefs.

Source: QNA