Trump Running for 'Fascist Demagogue' Says O'Malley

BALTIMORE, MD — While Republican presidential candidates have been reluctant to take on frontrunner Donald Trump – perhaps in fear that the real estate mogul will unleash his Twitter account on them – former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has jumped into the fray.

On Monday, Trump’s presidential campaign called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” reports Bloomberg Politics.

First to throw a verbal counterpunch was O’Malley, who has languished in polls as Democrats back frontrunner former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

O’Malley called out Trump on Twitter: “.@realdonaldtrump removes all doubt: he is running for President as a fascist demagogue.”

The leader in national polls for the Republican party’s presidential nomination has been blasted by Democrats for months for his pledge to build a wall along the United States/Mexico border. Since attacks by radical Muslims in Paris and elsewhere in the past month, Trump has made headlines with comments about Muslims in the U.S. At one point he suggested a database for Muslim immigrants, then backtracked.

He tweeted Monday about “the extraordinary influx of hatred & danger coming into our country. We must be vigilant!”

At the last Democratic debate, O’Malley called him an “immigrant-bashing carnival barker.” Trump has called O’Malley a failed mayor and a clown.

Meanwhile, a new poll shows that Trump has lost ground in early caucus state Iowa to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, The Hill reports. Cruz, who unleashed a new television ad recently in Iowa, has climbed to 24 percent of support in Iowa, according to a Monmouth University survey. Trump is in second place with 19 percent, followed by Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida at 17 percent, and Ben Carson at 13 percent.

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