Donald Trump has given his first response to Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim American soldier who died to protect his unit. Khan addressed the Democratic national convention this week, rebuking Trump as unpatriotic and selfish as he did so.

In an interview with the New York Times opinion writer Maureen Dowd, Trump’s only comment was: “I’d like to hear his wife say something.”

The Republican nominee also gave an interview with ABC, in which he suggested that Hillary Clinton’s speechwriters scripted Khan’s speech, which Khan has said he wrote with his wife, Ghazala Khan.

“If you look at his wife, she was standing there,” Trump said. “She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.”

On Thursday, Khan stunned a national audience with a speech directly confronting Trump, who has called for a ban on Muslims entering the US. At the climax of the speech, Khan, a Harvard-educated lawyer, pulled a small constitution from his jacket pocket and held it above his head.

“Have you even read the United States constitution?” he asked of Trump.

“Have you ever been to Arlington cemetery? Go look at the graves of the brave patriots who died defending America – you will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”