If there's one thing that political analysts (and yes, that includesFox News) and laypeople alike agree on, it's that Donald Trump's Islamophobic rhetoric calling to ban Muslims from entering the United States is completely ass-backwards. On Monday Trump's camp released a statement calling for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." So infuriated was the Internet that it began likening Donald Trump to one of pop culture's most ubiquitous Y.A. villains, J.K. Rowling's Voldemort. And now the White House is coming for the man a spokesman has deemed a "carnival barker."
During a press briefing on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest answered a question from a reporter regarding the statements by saying that Trump was effectively "disqualified" from running for president. "What he said is disqualifying," Earnest said of Trump. "And any Republican who’s too fearful of the Republican base to admit it has no business serving as president either."
The White House, of course, joins a growing roster of celebrities, pundits, politicians, and Twitter's finest who've responded to the remarks, and the hashtag #TrumpIsDisqualifiedParty is now trending. Here are just a few responses from the bigwigs:
"I disagree with that proposal. I like Donald Trump," said presidential hopeful Ted Cruz. "A lot of our friends here have encouraged me to criticize and attack Donald Trump. I'm not interested in doing so."
"Well I think this whole notion that somehow we need to say no more Muslims and just ban a whole religion goes against everything we stand for and believe in," said former Vice President Dick Cheney. "I mean religious freedom’s been a very important part of our, our history."
The response is seemingly unanimous: this tomfoolery needs to stop.
