NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – Congressmen, rival candidates, world leaders and even the creators of Harry Potter and “The Shining” all agree: Donald Trump’s call to block Muslims from entering the United States goes too far.
The Republican presidential front-runner’s statement Monday advocating a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” was blasted as bigoted, unconstitutional and potentially dangerous for American interests abroad.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, breaking the custom of British leaders not commenting on U.S. presidential contenders, slammed it as “divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong.” U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon denounced “any kind of rhetoric that relies on Islamophobia, xenophobia, any other appeal to hate any groups.”
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling decried Trump on Twitter as worse than her fictional villain Lord Voldemort. Horror novelist Stephen King wrote, “That anyone in America would even CONSIDER voting for this rabid coyote leaves me speechless.”
“This is not conservatism,” Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters after a closed-door GOP caucus meeting. “What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for, and more importantly it’s not what this country stands for.”