Republican candidates for the US Presidency are hitting back at Donald Trump after he called for America's borders to be closed to all Muslims.
He's been called "unhinged", "ridiculous" and "dangerous" by some of his competitors in the race for the White House.
But our Washington Correspondent Simon Marks says it's too early to know how Mr. Trump's proposal is going down with the public.
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Generally speaking, if you are a Republican candidate for the US Presidency and you're too right wing even for former Vice President Dick Cheney, then you are rewriting the rule book of American politics.
But that is the position in which Donald Trump now finds himself.
The billionaire property developer…still the front-runner in the race for the Republican Party's Presidential nomination….has caused consternation here with his proposal to shut America's borders to all Muslims.
He launched it at a campaign rally marking the anniversary of Japan's 1941 strike on Pearl Harbour.
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What Mr. Trump wrote was that he believes the hatred of Muslims for the United States is "beyond comprehension", and that as a result the country's borders should be closed to them, until - as he put it - "we are able to determine and understand this problem".
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The reaction has been fast and furious - the most dangerous place on Capitol Hill is currently between Republican members of Congress who want to disassociate themselves from Mr. Trump's remarks and the open microphones of America's cable news channels.
Republican Presidential candidates have called him "unhinged" and "ridiculous".
Carly Fiorina called Mr. Trump "as dangerous as Barack Obama".
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The White House called Mr. Trump's ideas out of tune with American values.
Hillary Clinton, seeking the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination, Tweeted that he's "playing right into the hands of terrorists".
Republican Party grandees fear that Mr. Trump is, single-handedly, not just undermining his own chance of winning the White House….but making sure that no Republican secures its key.
Even normally reactionary conservatives, like former Vice President Dick Cheney, say they're horrified by what he's proposed.
He spoke on the Hugh Hewitt Radio Program here.
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Mr. Trump is unbowed…and doubling down.
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In an appearance on CNN, he battled host Chris Cuomo - whose brother is the Governor of New York - after he suggested that Mr. Trump's approach is un-American.
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Where does all this go?
In an election campaign where absolutely nothing so far has been predictable, pollsters will be eager to find out.
But while the political establishment is unanimously condemning Mr. Trump….commuters in Manhattan seemed to be giving his proposals some kind of serious thought.
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It is of course possible that this is the moment when terminal cracks start appearing in Donald Trump's campaign….and that by the turn of the New Year, he's but a memory that Republican Party leaders no longer have to worry about.
Possible.
But not guaranteed.
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