Donald Trump has suggested that former GOP congresswoman Liz Cheney should be put in front of a line of rifles, as the Republican nominee's rhetoric draws increasing criticisms ahead of Tuesday's presidential election.
Trump used a town hall event with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in Arizona on Thursday night to attack one of his most outspoken critics in his own party.
He said Ms Cheney — the daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney — was a war hawk and "very dumb".
"Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?" Trump said at the event in Glendale.
"Let's see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face."
Trump had been railing about politicians escalating armed conflicts or starting new ones "when they're sitting in Washington in a nice building".
On Friday morning, Ms Cheney took to social media to describe the former president as a "vindictive, cruel and unstable man".
"This is how dictators destroy free nations," she wrote on X.
"They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant."
Trump on Friday clarified the attack on his Truth social media platform, saying Cheney would not have "the guts" to fight in a war.
"It's easy for her to talk, sitting far from where the death scenes take place, but put a gun in her hand, and let her go fight, and she'll say, 'No thanks!'," he wrote.
Ms Cheney, who was a congresswoman for Wyoming between 2017 and 2023 and served as chair of the House Republican Conference, has been a prominent Trump critic, endorsing his rival Kamala Harris and even campaigning for the Democratic nominee.
Ms Cheney has given stump speeches in support of Ms Harris — the current US vice-president — in several locations where there are concentrations of suburban GOP women on electoral rolls.
Multiple polls have pointed to Ms Harris being more popular among women voters, and analysts argue Ms Cheney is trying to exploit the gender divide to make sure Trump does not return to the White House.
Trump is often criticised for his statements about women — made over decades in both public and private settings — which have been described as everything from "inappropriate" to "highly offensive" and "unhinged".
At a campaign event this week in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the 78-year-old said he was determined to protect women "whether they like it or not".
He was last year found guilty in a civil case of sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s, in a lawsuit he claimed had been a "scam".
Speaking before a flight to Wisconsin on Friday, Ms Harris said her rival's language meant he was "unqualified to be president".
"His enemies list has grown longer. His rhetoric has grown more extreme, and he is even less focused than before on the needs and the concerns and the challenges facing the American people."
Speaking on CNN, Tom Corbett, a former Republican governor in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, also denounced Trump's comments about Ms Cheney, saying they had "shocked" him.
"When you see actions like that, you certainly have to question the ability of someone to function in the role of president," Mr Corbett said.
However, in another key battleground — Michigan — Trump's supporters backed the Republican nominee's comments as they queued to hear him speak at a campaign rally in Warren, just outside Detroit, on Friday.
Kim, from Detroit's suburbs, said the media had taken the remarks out of context.
"They've changed all the things he said. They turned it around. He said, 'How would she like it if guns were pointed at her?'" she said.
"He doesn't want to send people to war, is what he's saying. That's all it was but then the left-wing media is taking it out of context as they always do."
Her friend Sandra, who's attended multiple Trump rallies, agreed, saying the media was "up to its old tricks".
Kate, who had been waiting in line for the rally for over four hours, said Ms Cheney was out of touch.
"Liz Cheney is an incompetent former congresswoman and she has what I call Trump derangement syndrome. She'd be less inclined to be always for wars if she wasn't so insulated from it and so if she was in a war zone herself she wouldn't likely support them," she said.
"He has never said he wanted to eliminate his enemies. When we said, 'Lock Hillary up.' That was just a saying and she was not locked up. He wants to have a fair system for all Americans."
Clarissa, who is from downtown Detroit and is a regular Trump rally attendee, said she liked the former president because "he just says what he feels".
Michigan, which has 15 electoral college votes, is considered a critical battleground state.
Joe Biden flipped it for the Democrats in 2020 when he won the presidency, after Trump turned it red in 2016.
The latest Trump-Cheney scrap came as the Democrats aired a new television ad, narrated by Julia Roberts, which depicts a woman "secretly" voting for Ms Harris against the advice of her husband.
The ad points out the ballots are confidential and that "no-one will ever know" if you say one thing outside the polling booth but do another in it.
Trump's ability to attract women voters has been called into question by others in his own party.
Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who unsuccessfully ran against the former president for the GOP nomination, said his "hyper-masculine rhetoric" might encourage women to vote for Ms Harris.
During a campaign event in Nevada on Thursday, Trump said he would have Robert F Kennedy Jr "work on women's health" if he won office.
Mr Kennedy, a vaccine sceptic and former independent presidential candidate who also, briefly, tried to get on the Democrats' ticket, has claimed Trump has promised him control of the country's public health agencies if he wins Tuesday's election.
