With presidential hopeful Donald Trump scrambling to justify his proposed ban on all Muslims entering the United States through comparisons to President Franklin Roosevelt’s actions during World War II, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz entered the fray with a a reminder of how history came to view Roosevelt’s treatment of “enemy aliens.”

Taking part by phone Tuesday in MSNBC’s widely watched “Morning Joe” program with co-host and former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough, Trump described his advocacy for the ban as “the same thing” as Roosevelt’s treatment of Germans, Italians and Japanese living in America during the second world war. The point didn’t sit well with Schatz, who responded with a press release accusing Trump of a shameful effort to justify racism.

“When Donald Trump proposed to block all Muslims from entering the United States, he referred to Roosevelt’s classification of thousands of Japanese, Germans, and Italians during the war as ‘enemy aliens’ as precedent,” said Schatz. “This shameful page of our history led to the internment of thousands of Japanese American families.

“In 1988, President Reagan offered a formal apology for this disgrace. We should remember this chapter in history in order to never repeat the same injustice.”

Schatz was hardly the only public figure criticizing Trump on Tuesday. In an interview on CNN, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said, “It’s clear what Donald Trump is doing. He’s trying to exploit people’s fears for his own political purpose.”

“I think it’s important to look at where are these fears coming from, these unfounded generalized fears of all Muslims,” Gabbard continued. Gabbard herself has come under fire this year, though, for persistent criticism of President Obama for not using phrasing such as “radical Islamic extremists” in describing terrorists.

Trump grew increasingly belligerent throughout the day in trying to explain himself. In the same MSNBC interview, Scarborough at one point ordered Trump’s microphone turned off and sent the program to a commercial break when the GOP candidate wouldn’t stop interrupting and talking over Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski.

As the interview continued after the commercial, Trump sought to paint a dire picture of Muslim-related danger in Europe, repeating widely discredited claims about parts of Paris that are so “radicalized,” “the police refuse to go there.” This comes on the heels of Trump’s claims over the past two weeks that “thousands and thousands” of Muslim residents in New Jersey celebrated with rooftop parties as they watched the World Trade Center towers attacked on 9/11 — stories that also have long since been wholly discredited.

In Washington, leaders as ideologically divergent as Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid joined in calling Trump’s proposal un-American, while White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Trump’s comment “disqualifies him from being president.”

Only the most strident voices in conservative talk radio and longshot GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum appeared to support Trump’s position.