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 The White House called on Republicans to say they would not
support Trump, currently the party's front-runner for the November
2016 election. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said his
comments could undermine U.S. security.
The prime ministers of France and the United Kingdom, Canada's
foreign minister, the United Nations and Muslims in Asian countries
all denounced the real-estate mogul's comments.
But Trump said his ideas were no worse than those of then-President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who oversaw the internment of more than
110,000 people in U.S. government camps after Japanese forces bombed
Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
"What I'm doing is no different than FDR," Trump said on ABC's "Good
Morning America" program.
"We have no choice but to do this," he said. "We have people that
want to blow up our buildings, our cities. We have to figure out
what's going on."
Trump said on ABC's "World News Tonight" the ban would be "short
term." He said the ban could be lifted "very quickly if our country
could get its act together."
 Trump also pressed his case in fractious appearances on MSNBC and
CNN.
On Monday, he called for blocking Muslims, including would-be
immigrants, students, tourists and other visitors, from entering the
country following last week's California shooting spree by two
Muslims who authorities said were radicalized.
It was the most dramatic response by a presidential candidate
following the San Bernardino, California, rampage, even as other
Republicans have called for a suspension of President Barack Obama's
plan to allow in 10,000 refugees from Syria.
Homeland Security Secretary Johnson said Trump's proposal could
thwart U.S. efforts to connect with the Muslim community, and the
Pentagon issued a similar warning. Secretary of State John Kerry
said Trump's ideas were not constructive.
A Trump campaign spokeswoman, asked for comment on U.S. officials'
reactions, did not address their criticism.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Trump's comments disqualify
him from being president and said other Republican candidates should
disavow him "right now."
TRUMP'S STANCE COULD HELP DEMOCRATS
Trump leads the Republican pack seeking the White House in 2016 with
35 percent of support in a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. Nearly all of
Trump's rivals criticized his proposal on Monday.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told the
Washington Examiner political news website that the United States
must combat terrorism "but not at the expense of our American
values."
The two top officials in the Republican-controlled Congress - House
of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell - criticized Trump but said they would support their
party's eventual nominee.
 But other Republicans warned that if Trump is the party's choice for
the November 2016 election, his stance could hurt in a matchup with
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
"All this helps is his buddy Hillary Clinton, for sure,"
presidential hopeful and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush told
reporters in Manchester, New Hampshire. "I don't think Republicans
are going to abide this language that guarantees that Hillary
Clinton has a far better chance of winning."
Democrats, meanwhile, blamed Republicans for Trump's extreme
language and warned it could help him with primary voters.
"Unfortunately, Trump is leaning into the kind of fear of progress
that very well could help him win the nomination," Huma Abedin, a
top aide to Clinton, said in a fundraising email declaring her own
Muslim faith.
Clinton said at a campaign event in New Hampshire that Trump's
Muslim ban was a "shameless and dangerous idea" which played right
into the hands of extremists.
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Polls have shown a stark divide between Republicans and Democrats in
how they view Muslims, who number about 3 million in the United
States, or less than 1 percent of the population.
Some conservative commentators, such as pundit Ann Coulter, came to
Trump's defense. Columnist Adriana Cohen wrote in the Boston Herald
that Trump should go a step further and call for closing the U.S.
border entirely.
Trump on Tuesday tweeted a link to a poll showing that 68 percent of
his supporters would vote for him if he left the Republican Party
and ran as an independent.
Still, Thomson Reuters data showed sentiment on social media toward
the outspoken billionaire became substantially more negative
compared with that before his proposal on Monday afternoon to ban
Muslims.
Trump's campaign dismissed criticism that his plan would likely be
unconstitutional for singling out people based on their religion.
Spokeswoman Katrina Pierson told MSNBC that the U.S. Constitution,
which guarantees freedom of religion, does not apply to people
outside the United States.
INTERNATIONAL OUTRAGE
The reaction from abroad was largely one of outrage. French Prime
Minister Manuel Valls said on Twitter, "Mr Trump, like others, is
feeding hatred and misinformation."
A spokeswoman for British Prime Minister David Cameron called
Trump's comments "divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong." A
group started a petition to revoke Trump's honorary degree from
Robert Gordon University in Scotland.
"We have never been as far removed from what we've just heard in the
United States," Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion said. The
United States' northern neighbor does not usually comment on
elections in other countries.
A spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
rejected Trump's comments, and Muslims in Pakistan and Indonesia
denounced him.
Two international refugee organizations rejected Trump's comments,
saying U.S. presidential campaign rhetoric threatens resettlement
efforts.
Trump warned repeatedly that an attack on the scale of Sept. 11,
2001, could happen again if officials do not act first. He said that
he did not know how long a ban would remain in place and that Muslim
Americans would be allowed into the country after overseas trips.
Trump told MSNBC that people would be asked about their religion at
U.S. borders and that the ban would extend to Muslim leaders of
other nations. He said he would not support internment camps.
Some observers poked fun at Trump.
The Democratic mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, Rick Kriseman, said
in a tongue-in-cheek tweet that he was barring Trump from visiting
the city.
"I am hereby barring Donald Trump from entering St. Petersburg until
we fully understand the dangerous threat posed by all Trumps,"
Kriseman wrote.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Emily Stephenson; Additional
reporting by David Lawder, Lisa Lambert, Eric Beech and Megan
Cassella in Washington, Andrew Callus in Paris and Letitia Stein in
Tampa, Florida; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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