Yet Trump’s constitutionally-questionable call to place an explicit religious test on immigration and travel goes far beyond his previous statements.

For one, this was not an off-the-cuff remark, a response to a vague question, or even an idle retweet. Trump detailed his new position in a written statement sent to hundreds if not thousands of reporters covering the campaign. And it apparently extends beyond immigrants to Muslim-American citizens living overseas. It includes “everyone,” Hope Hicks, a campaign spokeswoman, told The Hill.

“Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine,” Trump said in his initial statement.

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.

The statement amounts to a sharp rebuke of President Obama’s plea, delivered in an Oval Office address on Sunday night, that the nation “reject discrimination” against Muslims. “It is our responsibility to reject religious tests on who we admit into this country,” Obama said. “It’s our responsibility to reject proposals that Muslim Americans should somehow be treated differently. Because when we travel down that road, we lose."

Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim immigration and travel drew swift and angry responses from candidates in both parties, as well as the White House.

.@realdonaldtrump removes all doubt: he is running for President as a fascist demagogue. — Martin O'Malley (@MartinOMalley) December 7, 2015

Condemnations from Republicans quickly followed. Jeb Bush tweeted that Trump had become “unhinged.” John Kasich said Trump’s “outrageous divisiveness” was more reason why he was “entirely unsuited” to be president. Senator Lindsey Graham, a long-shot Republican rival, tweeted that Trump had “gone from making absurd comments to being downright dangerous with his bombastic rhetoric.”

He’s putting at risk the lives of interpreters, American supporters, diplomats, & the troops in the region by making these bigoted comments — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 7, 2015

Another Senate Republican, Jeff Flake of Arizona, wrote that “just when you think [Trump] can stoop no lower, he does.” The White House responded on Twitter by posting a quote, in all-caps, of Obama’s call to rejected religious tests.

Of the immediate Republican candidate reactions, it was Trump’s closest competitor in Iowa, Ted Cruz, who had the mildest response. “That is not my policy,” he reportedly said in South Carolina, before repeating his preference for a three-year moratorium on refugees coming from countries with an ISIS or al Qaeda presence.