Donald Trump on Monday said there should be a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," a surprising escalation of rhetoric—even for him.

The brash GOP front-runner, increasingly desperate to hold on to his position atop the field, emailed out the statement just hours after a new poll showed Ted Cruz overtaking him for the first time in Iowa, where the first-in-the-nation caucuses are less than two months away (a second poll of likely Iowa GOP caucus-goers released Monday afternoon showed Trump maintaining his lead in Iowa).

Doubling down on the signature demagoguery that has enraged liberals and many moderate Republicans but endeared him to the conservative base, Trump said that the U.S. should stop all Muslims from entering the country in response to the ISIL-coordinated attacks in Paris and last week’s ISIL-inspired shooting in San Bernardino carried out by a Muslim husband and wife who became radicalized.

Trump's statement, which his aides promoted on Twitter, cited a Pew Research study which the campaign said showed "there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population."

"Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension," Trump said. "Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine. Until recently 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. If I win the election for President, we are going to Make America Great Again."

Even though Trump aide Daniel Scavino had tweeted the statement, Trump’s campaign fielded a number of calls from reporters wanting to confirm that the statement was real—a sign of the outlandish nature of this latest proposal, even from a candidate who has been uniquely audacious in stretching the boundaries of political decorum and the standard Republican orthodoxies on policy.

But the statement, Trump’s campaign confirmed, was true. A spokeswoman, when asked what inspired the comments, said Trump commented, “death.”

To clear up any doubts, Trump himself tweeted moments later: “Just put out a very important policy statement regarding the influx of hatred and danger coming into out country. We must be vigilant.”

Once again, Trump’s extreme positioning on an issue forced his GOP rivals to weigh in, further fanning attention Trump’s way.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has been winning many of Ben Carson’s former supporters in Iowa over Trump, said, “that’s not my policy” when asked about Trump’s proposal Monday afternoon in South Carolina.

Jeb Bush quickly spoke out on Twitter, saying, “Donald Trump is unhinged. His ‘policy’ proposals are not serious.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called Trump’s statement “a ridiculous view” and chalked it up to his lack of political experience. 

“This is the kind of things that people say when they have no experience and don’t know what they’re talking about,” Christie said on the Michael Medved radio show Monday. “We need to cooperate with peaceful Muslim Americans who want to give us intelligence.”

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who unlike Cruz and Rubio isn’t making a serious play for Trump voters, slammed the rhetoric as “just more of the outrageous divisiveness that characterizes his every breath and another reason why he is entirely unsuited to lead the United States.”

The statement also drew fire from South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who tweeted, “@realDonaldTrump has gone from making absurd comments to being downright dangerous with his bombastic rhetoric.”

Just Sunday night, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio questioned President Obama’s suggestion of anti-Muslim discrimination. “Where is the evidence we have widespread discrimination against Muslims?” he said during an interview on Fox News.

In recent weeks, Trump has defended his remarks about seeing "thousands" of Muslims celebrating the 9/11 attacks in New Jersey and has indicated his openness to registering American Muslims in a database. The escalation in Trump's talk came a few days after Attorney General Loretta Lynch warned against a brewing backlash against Muslims. On Thursday, Lynch said there has been "incredibly disturbing rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric," adding "that fear is my greatest fear."

And it comes a day after President Barack Obama suggested that Trump's rhetoric was playing into the terrorists' hands, though he did not mention him by name. “We cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam,” Obama said. “That, too, is what groups like ISIL want.”

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, appearing on MSNBC, said that Trump is “seeking to tap into a darker side, a darker element and try to play into people’s fears” in a way that is "entirely inconsistent with … the kinds of values that were central to the founding of this country."

Trump's proposal, which would seemingly violate the First Amendment's protection of religious freedom, also comes on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, an attack that ultimately led to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War Two.

“I have no idea what he’s doing," Earnest said. “I think what he is doing, is he’s dividing America in a really cynical way.”

Incredulous as so many were upon hearing Trump's proposal, a longtime political operative who knows Trump well saw a cunning political ploy aimed at solidifying the billionaire's standing with the GOP base.

"He knows that by driving a wedge like this, he'll win the Republican primary," the operative said. "This is a base that is almost completely opposed to resettling any Syrian refugees in the U.S. He's locking down that real estate, forcing his rivals to scramble to figure out their own positioning and he's setting the agenda once again.

"He knows the xenophobia thing works with the Republican base. It just does."

As Trump’s plan emerged, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was meeting with Muslim Americans at a mosque in northern Virginia. He posed for photos with Muslim American youngsters in the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts before holding a press conference with reporters. It was the second public meeting with Muslims by an Obama cabinet member since the apparent terror attack last Wednesday in California.

Johnson refused to comment specifically on Trump’s statement, saying the remarks he just delivered speak for themselves. “When responding to this new environment, we must not vilify American Muslims,” Johnson had said. “We must not force American Muslims to run and hide and retreat to the shadows. This would be counter to our homeland security efforts and it is un-American.”

Trump’s statement also quoted a study by the Center for Security Policy that claimed, "'25% of those polled agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as part of the global Jihad.'" The CSP is designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Trump defended his statement Monday night on Fox News’ “On the Record” though he attempted to make a distinction between American Muslins and non-American Muslims. 

He said that American Muslims serving in the military abroad would be able to return home.

“This does not apply to people living in the country except that we have to be vigilant,” Trump said. 

He expressed confidence in his view saying that many of his fellow candidates will agree with him eventually. 

When host Greta Van Susteren pointed to strong remarks condemning his statement, Trump pivoted to one of his favorite topics: polls. 

“Look at the poll numbers with all of them, they’re practically zero,” Trump said before continuing on to slam Bush and Christie.