We’ve warned of Barack Obama’s jihadi pipeline and the Syrian refugee Trojan horse, and everyone saw the carnage wrought by two fanatical Muslims in San Bernardino. But Donald Trump just took the debate to the next level in calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” Whatever the latter part of that means. Less than a full day after Obama’s pathetic national address on his plan to keep doing all the things that allowed the Islamic State to flourish in the first place, Trump’s was a calculated but cynical media play designed to gain attention and set the negotiating line as far in his direction as possible (“Art of the Deal,” anyone?). Perhaps it was because Ted Cruz has now taken the lead in Iowa and Trump needed a boost. In any case, his declaration had the intended effect: Every media outlet went after every Republican they could find to see who would denounce the party’s presidential frontrunner. And just about all of them obliged. How could they not?

So instead of unifying the nation — or even just the Republican Party — Trump’s comments have created more infighting. That isn’t to say there’s not some good reason for that, given the sense of many Americans that no one in Washington is doing anything remotely close to what’s best for the country, all while bowing to the demands of political correctness. Unfortunately, the worst part is that Trump has now erected the very straw man Obama looked so foolish fighting on Sunday night. In doing so, Trump makes Obama look more reasonable by comparison.