DHS secretary: Trump's Muslim ban 'will not work'

Donald Trump's call to temporarily ban Muslims and people from certain regions on the world from entering the United States is "overly simplistic" and "counterproductive," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Tuesday.

A day after Trump suggested that President Barack Obama might have another motive for not more aggressively going after the terrorist threat to the United States, Johnson told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America" that his boss' "No. 1 priority is the protection of the American people" and protecting the homeland.


"I won't comment on what the candidates say running for president," Johnson said. "I will say that overly simplistic suggestions that we ban people from entering this country based on religion or ban people from an entire region of the world is counterproductive."

Such proposals "will not work," Johnson said, echoing past statements, remarking that the U.S. needs to "build bridges" to American Muslim communities to foster homeland security efforts.