Florida Mayor Bans Donald Trump From St. Petersburg

In response to a contentious statement made by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump about Muslims, the mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, tweeted Monday night that he is barring Trump from entering the city. The tweet has garnered 3,542 retweets, 4,135 likes and hundreds of replies.

“I am hereby barring Donald Trump from entering St. Petersburg until we fully understand the dangerous threat posed by all Trumps," St. Petersburg Rick Kriseman tweeted Monday night. When asked by a Twitter user whether his tweet was sarcastic, Kriseman responded yes, and that he was “answering ridiculousness” with “ridiculousness.”

Many people applauded Kriseman’s tweet, but some Trump supporters were quick to defend the real estate mogul.

"I very quickly had to take my phone out of my pocket because it wouldn't stop vibrating," Kriseman said about the national reaction to his tweet, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Trump called for the U.S. to implement a “total and complete” travel ban against Muslims trying to enter country. The billionaire businessman cited the “great hatred” that “large” segments of the Muslim population hold against Americans in a statement Monday. His controversial statement about Muslims has ignited a severe public backlash from the media, general public and presidential candidates on both sides of the political spectrum. The White House responded to his statement, saying his comments were contrary to American values and national security interests, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also condemned Trump’s declaration, saying the GOP candidate is aggravating Islamophobia in the U.S. with inaccurate and inflammatory remarks in the wake of the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, International Business Times previously reported.

“This is exactly what ISIS wants, to turn Americans against one another,” a representative of CAIR said. “We stand today united as Americans against stigmatization, against Islamophobia, against ISIS.”