“Trump is a fascist. And that’s not a term I use loosely or often. But he’s earned it,” tweeted Max Boot, a conservative fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who is advising Marco Rubio.

“Forced federal registration of US citizens, based on religious identity, is fascism. Period. Nothing else to call it,” Jeb Bush national security adviser John Noonan wrote on Twitter.

Conservative Iowa radio host Steve Deace, who has endorsed Ted Cruz, also used the “F” word last week: “If Obama proposed the same religion registry as Trump every conservative in the country would call it what it is — creeping fascism.”

Even one GOP presidential hopeful — albeit a little-known candidate barely registering in the polls — has used this language. In an interview with Newsmax TV on Friday, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore said Trump’s immigration policies, including the idea of creating a “deportation force” to remove undocumented immigrants from the country, amounted to “fascist talk.”