REPUBLICAN presidential hopeful Donald Trump says America should ban all Muslims from entering the country – and former Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says we should eat less meat.

It certainly takes all sorts in American politics.

In a campaign statement to his lap-it-all-up, no-brain, dimwit followers – and if that sounds rude, just imagine all the swearwords I have just removed – Trump said a “total and complete” shutdown on allowing Muslims into the country should remain until the US authorities “can figure out” Muslim attitudes to the US.

This statement was so extreme that fellow Republican Jeb Bush, also running for president, said Trump was “unhinged”.

There has been no sign of a Trump hinge for a long time now.

The New York businessman has turned being a political maverick into a scary art.

Trump’s latest bit of idiocy was delivered as the US comes to terms with the attack last week in which a Muslim couple opened fire and killed 14 people at a health centre in San Bernardino.

That was a terrible and tragic incident. Sadly, such outrages occur relatively often in the US thanks in large part to a complete lack of sense about guns.

This incident may have had different roots, but the template was similar. Someone with too easy access to weapons has a grudge, an ideological hatred or a mental illness – so they go and kill a bunch of people.

You notice that Trump didn’t say anything about banning guns. Just allowing no Muslims into the country.

Well, Donald, aren’t very many of those Muslims already in the States, where they live as honest everyday citizens? So they might be difficult to ban.

I know it is their politics are not ours, but sometimes sitting here you can’t believe what you hear coming from over there.

Trump has been spouting virulent nonsense throughout his campaign. He even claimed at one point that thousands of Arab-Americans in New Jersey were celebrating after two planes flew into the Twin Towers. There are, according to the BBC website, “no media reports to back up the claim”.

That’s because it didn’t happen outside of Trump’s fuzz-filled head. Many of his statements are urban myths at best, and virulent untruths at worst.

And yet his dunderhead supporters lap up every idiotic lie or vile exaggeration.

Let’s turn to Arnie instead. The man’s a beacon of good sense compared to Trump.

Speaking to the BBC’s Roger Harrabin at the COP21 climate summit in Paris, the Hollywood star and former California Governor urges politicians not to defer action on global warming.

An American Republican who believes in climate change – gosh, that’s as rare as a sensible word rolling out of Donald Trump’s mad mouth.

Schwarzenegger makes many cogent points in an interview in which he comes across rather charmingly. He also says at one point that we should all eat less meat.

And this from the man who in one of his films said the immortal line: “You hit like a vegetarian.”

Arnie doesn’t say we should stop eating meat, but suggests cutting down and having one or two meat-free days.

That’s all very sensible but I have another suggestion: marry a vegetarian. You’ll soon find meat disappearing from your diet then.

I didn’t actually marry a vegetarian: my wife became one part-way through.

The meathead side of my brain thinks: well that wasn’t in the contract. But the sane side of my brain is happy with eating less meat.

Some weeks I have one or two meaty days, eating vegetarian food the rest of the time.

I don’t mind this at all, especially if spinach dahl or lentils are in the mix. Or a good veg soup. Maybe ratatouille – and I do make a mean ratatouille.

But sometimes I crave beef roasted or in a stew, a bit of bacon, a sausage or two. Salmon is often on the menu, because it’s easy to smuggle onto an otherwise vegetarian plate.

So I’m with there with Arnie on this one. As for Donald Trump, I keep hoping his hair might slide off his head and choke him.

What a happy day that would be.