Charles Krauthammer: “Of course we all try to protect our own dignity and command respect. But Trump’s hypersensitivity and unedited, untempered Pavlovian responses are, shall we say, unusual in both ferocity and predictability.”

“This is beyond narcissism. I used to think Trump was an 11-year-old, an undeveloped schoolyard bully. I was off by about 10 years. His needs are more primitive, an infantile hunger for approval and praise, a craving that can never be satisfied. He lives in a cocoon of solipsism where the world outside himself has value — indeed exists — only insofar as it sustains and inflates him.”

“Most politicians seek approval. But Trump lives for the adoration. He doesn’t even try to hide it, boasting incessantly about his crowds, his standing ovations, his TV ratings, his poll numbers, his primary victories. The latter are most prized because they offer empirical evidence of how loved and admired he is.”

Donald Trump was asked by WGME-TV if a new Fox News poll that showed him running 10 points behind Hillary Clinton is “concerning” to him.

Said Trump: “No, it’s very, very early and I think we’re going to do very well.”

“When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same. The temperament is not that different.”

— Donald Trump, quoted by the New Yorker.

First Read runs through the events of the last day:

• In a Washington Post interview, Trump declined to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan against his primary challenger
• He reiterated that he hasn’t endorsed Sen. John McCain and said the onetime prisoner of war “has not done a good job for the vets”
• He slapped out at Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, saying “she has given me zero support”
• He suggested that Americans should pull their 401(k) funds out of the stock market
• He said he’s “always wanted” to receive a Purple Heart but that having one gifted to him by a supporter was “much easier”
• He said that the handling of sexual harassment has “got to be up to the individual”
• He accused Khizr Khan of being “bothered” by his plan to keep terrorists out of the country, and said that he had no regrets about his clash with the family
• He appeared to feud with a crying baby during a rally
• He reiterated that “if the election is rigged, I would not be surprised”
• The sitting president of the United States publicly called Trump “unfit to serve” and urged Republicans to withdraw their support for him.
• Trump spokesman Katrina Pierson suggested that Obama and Clinton are to blame for the death of Humayan Khan, who died in 2004, when neither were in the executive branch at the time
• An ally of Paul Manafort told our colleague John Harwood at CNBC that the campaign chairman is “mailing it in,” leaving the rest of the staff “suicidal.”
• Sitting GOP congressman Richard Hanna, HP head Meg Whitman and former Christie aide Maria Comella all said they plan to vote for Hillary Clinton
• The Washington Post released a transcript of its full interview with Trump, indicating among other things that he paused five times to watch TV coverage in the middle of the sit-down
• A GOP source told NBC’s Katy Tur that Reince Priebus is “apoplectic” over Trump’s refusal to endorse Ryan and is making calls to the campaign to express his “extreme displeasure”

Donald Trump told the Washington Post that he was going to set up “two or three” super PACs seeded with $10 million each to attack candidates he opposes — Democrats and Republicans — in future elections.

When pressed if he would use one against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) he said, “Maybe.”

He then added: “Maybe against Kasich.”

“Donald Trump aides and people close to his campaign are increasingly frustrated by his insistence on waging various fights that steer him off message,” CNN reports.

One knowledgeable Republican said that some of Trump’s campaign staff — even campaign manager Paul Manafort — “feel like they are wasting their time.”

“It has been relayed to Trump hat he is losing what tenuous support he has in the party establishment, and that already skeptical donors are heading for the exits or telling the senior team can’t count on serious progress when he looks so toxic.”

Donald Trump told the Washington Post that the election will be “rigged” against him — and he could lose as a result.

Said Trump: “If the election is rigged, I would not be surprised. The voter ID situation has turned out to be a very unfair development. We may have people vote 10 times.”

“Those comments followed a claim Trump made Monday, to an audience in Ohio, that ‘the election is going to be rigged.’ That same day, in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, he beseeched Republicans to start ‘watching closely’ or the election will be ‘taken away from us’ through fraud.”