Has there ever been a major presidential candidate whose beliefs were as vile as Donald J. Trump's?

Probably so, in the days before the Civil War. In the modern era, you have to go back to Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace's third-party campaign in 1968 to find someone spouting as much demagogic bile as Mr. Trump has spilled along the Republican campaign trail.

He is living proof that it is possible to mistake money for wisdom. He loves to talk about how smart he is, but the more he blathers on, the more he disproves the contention. He is a walking, talking spoiled child of a train wreck who apparently is willing to say anything that pops into his head, regardless of whether he has given it any thought. If his buildings had the same shoddy foundations as his beliefs, they would collapse in gilded heaps.

But Monday he surpassed himself in calling forth the evil angels of his nature. His campaign issued a statement saying Trump was calling for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what's going on."

This was not a slip of the tongue. This was a formal press release, which means more than one person looked at it before it was sent forth. But Mr. Trump has surrounded himself with toadies. No one tells The Donald, "You know, this is maybe not such a good idea."

Later in the day, as the firestorm was breaking, Mr. Trump doubled down, telling a rally in South Carolina, "I wrote something today that I think is very salient, very important and probably not politically correct. But I don't care."

So he owns this, the most despicable idea since slavery. Never mind the Constitution. Never mind that if Congress somehow passed it — and as many bad ideas as this Congress has passed, this one is beyond even its pale — it would take a federal judge about 30 seconds to throw it out.

Never mind that the statement recalls the Nazi Party's Nuremberg Laws of 1935, the ones that enshrined Hitler's racial theories into German law. Never mind the broad brush that Trump uses to paint every Muslim. It is as if every Christian were equated with the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Fortunately, less bizarre Republicans condemned Mr. Trump's statement. "Unhinged," said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. "Ridiculous," said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. "Offensive and outlandish," said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. "Downright dangerous," said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Then there was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who hopes to pick off anyone who's not quite crazy enough to vote for Trump, saying it's "not my policy." Thanks for that stirring profile in courage, senator.

Even former Vice President Dick Cheney, no shrinking violet, said Mr. Trump's statement "goes against everything we stand for."

Republicans have every reason to condemn Trump's views. First, they deserve condemnation. Second, if Trump were somehow to capture their party's presidential nomination, the mainstream GOP would have to field a third-party challenge just to maintain its viability as a legitimate political party. That would surely lock up the presidency for the Democrats, and possibly the Senate and House as well. You can't have a kook at the top of the ticket.

Fortunately, for all the attention he gets and craves, Donald Trump is unlikely to be the GOP nominee. It's one thing to tell a pollster you're for Trump, it's quite another to show up at a primary and vote for him. Being "for Trump" now just means you're angry, maybe scared, easy pickings for charlatans and those sick of politics as usual. Voting, however, is an act of citizenship, and most people take it seriously.

Donald Trump is the latest in a long line of populist demagogues who have strutted their 15 seconds on the national stage. He is George Wallace. He is Father Charles Coughlin. He is Sen. Huey P. Long. It is not so far from "every man a king" to "make America great again." Huey Long just didn't pass out hats.

So why write about him? Good question. We've tried not to, even though Donald Trump is "good copy," as they say in our business. He is a slow-motion car wreck. He is cats on ice skates. He is a candy bar at a spinach buffet. He is a celebrity who says outlandish things, a man who is profoundly unqualified to be president, but he is politics without the boring policy bits.

It has been suggested that the news media should ignore him, that he says outlandish things only when his grip on the polls starts to weaken. He dominates the headlines and the guest-shots on cable news. That he soaks up so much of the media oxygen drives his presidential opponents to distraction, so they elbow each other for position, trying to be the dignified but slightly-less-crazy alternative.

We choose to write about him today only because he chose to tap into something so horribly dark in the American soul. For political gain, he cast his lot with the worst instincts in the body politic. For cheap points, he whips up a lynch mob.

Perhaps, in the hustle-buck world of real estate development, he is as "really, really smart" as he says he is. But on matters of public policy, he is as dumb as a box of rocks. Even that would be OK if his ideas weren't so vile and evil.

But they are. Donald Trump is a huckster of hate. He's gone too far. Now he should go far away.

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