"It goes against everything we stand for and believe in," said former vice-president Dick Cheney, referring to Donald Trump's proposed ban on all Muslims entering the country. And when you've lost Cheney, the nation's chief fear-monger, you're in serious trouble with conservatives.
Speaking at a standing-room-only rally aboard the USS Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, S.C. Monday night Trump, the Republican front-runner, may have finally gone too far in his incendiary, hate-filled racist rhetoric. He called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."
In his fiery speech Trump suggested the ban could be temporary, "until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on" in terms of the relationship between Muslims and terrorism.
"Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life," Trump quoted himself from a written statement.
This latest Trump controversy appears to be the tipping point in his unprecedented presidential campaign, finally bringing both Republicans and Democrats together in soundly denouncing his outlandish, bigoted rhetoric.
On the right, Trump's been harshly criticized by prominent GOP leaders including RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lindsay Graham, Sen. James Inhofe, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, Rick Santorum, MSCBC's Joe Scarborough, Bill Kristol and countless others.
Bush called Trump "unhinged."
Graham called Trump a "xenophobic, race-baiting, religious bigot."
Ryan said "this is not conservatism," adding that Trump's rhetoric "is not what this party stands for... more importantly, it's not what this country stands for."
"I don't agree" with Trump's call for a ban, said Priebus. "We need to aggressively take on radical Islamic terrorism but not at the expense of our American values."
McConnell said Trump's plan is "inconsistent with American values."
Kristol said he loathes Trump for "soiling the robe of conservatism and dragging it through the dust."
McCain said "It's just foolishness. It's been a long series of statements like this that have been just foolish."
Through a spokesman, former President George W. Bush coyly refused to comment on "Trump's bluster."
And a clearly irritated Scarborough became the first major political talk show host to essentially tell Trump to shut the fuck up or I'm shutting you down. Which he did on Tuesday's "Morning Joe" broadcast when the bloviating billionaire refused to stop talking over him and co-host Mika Brzezinski. Scarborough shouted "Donald, Donald, Donald, Donald!" before cutting to a quick commercial when Trump challenged him to do so following the visibly angry host's threat.
The condemnation from the left was equally severe, as was the reaction from the Muslim community.
"Donald Trump sounds more like a leader of a lynch mob than a great nation like ours," said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
"The fact is that what Donald Trump said yesterday disqualifies him from serving as president, and for Republican candidates for president to stand by their pledge to support Mr. Trump, that in and of itself is disqualifying," said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
Both Hillary Clinton and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid criticized the entire GOP pack of hopefuls in their rebuke of Trump.
"They are all driving the exact narrative that Jihadists want to advance," said Clinton. "That we are at war not with barbarous, violent, murderers but with an entire religion. This is a grave mistake."
"Republican candidates condemn Trump's remarks and then adopt his racist policies as their own," said Reid.
But perhaps Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter put it best, calling Trump an "asshole" a "madman" and a "danger to society."
To be sure, Trump's unconscionable, unconstitutional, rabble-rousing ban rhetoric won't lose him any support among his fervent base. They'll loyally follow him like automatons no matter what he says. But Trump is now for the first time in the campaign uniformly reaping the wrath of the party's hierarchy, which has to-date allowed him to rant like a racist maniac unchallenged. Besides pissing off every ethic and religious group except white Christians, he's likely lost whatever support he had from independents, moderates and even some hard-liners.
Rep. Peter King, said "Donald Trump always takes it to the extreme, and takes it to the extreme which really goes beyond American values." But more telling was when asked on CNN if he could see himself voting for Hillary Clinton if he felt Trump wasn't qualified to be president, there was a noticeably awkward pause (it actually seemed as if he was about to say "yes" and then caught himself) before going into spin mode.
In the wake of his latest shameful, flame-throwing diatribe, Trump is the object of massive scorn all over the world. He's become a threat to the nation, providing constant fodder for ISIS recruiting videos. At home he's become a divisive lightening rod, pitting American against American. An embarrassment and a joke. An hysterical buffoon. Detested. The man who for decades has been called a marketing genius, in just a few short months running for president, has forever tarnished his reputation (or what little of it is left) and his precious brand while creating what is sure to be a lasting, and brutally ugly, new legacy.