White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Trump's campaign had a "dustbin of history" quality to it and said his comments were offensive and toxic.
#TrumpIsDisqualifiedParty quickly became the number one trending hashtag in the world.
Federation of Islamic Association of New Zealand (FIANZ) president Hazim Arafeh said it was a huge discrimination and "against the founding principles of the United States".
"I honestly don't know where this is taking us. He's promoting hatred against Muslims and defeating constitutional rights everybody has fought for."
Labour Party foreign affairs spokesman David Shearer also panned Turmp's comments. Mr. Shearer said they were "moronic" and undermined the United States' reputation for religious freedom.
"I think it's likely to play into the hands of the very people who he is worried about," Mr Shearer told the Herald.
"This is exactly what extremists would want to see. But I think more importantly, he's missed the plot in terms of the violence that claims most American lives. It doesn't come from Muslim extremism, it comes from people within their own society."
Mr Shearer said he was optimistic that Trump would be overtaken by a more sensible and humane Republican candidate.
"Ultimately he will be seen to be someone who doesn't really have a prescription of what to do other than build walls and to create bans. That is not going to create a United States that the world respects and admires."
The Labour MP said there was no public or political appetite for Trump's comments in New Zealand.
"I'd like to think that they would be shouted down by pretty much everyone in New Zealand as being not only an overreaction but likely to do real harm to our multicultural society."
Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent for the Atlantic, tweeted: "Donald Trump is now an actual threat to national security. He's providing jihadists ammunition for their campaign to demonize the US."
Arianna Huffington wrote a scathing editorial, A Note on Trump: We Are No Longer Entertained, in which she said the Huffington Post will change the way it covers Trump.
She wrote: "Back in July, we announced our decision to put our coverage of Trump's presidential campaign in our Entertainment section instead of our Politics section. 'Our reason is simple,' wrote Ryan Grim and Danny Shea. 'Trump's campaign is a sideshow.'
"Since then Trump's campaign has certainly lived up to that billing. But as today's vicious pronouncement makes abundantly clear, it's also morphed into something else: an ugly and dangerous force in American politics. So we will no longer be covering his campaign in Entertainment. But that's not to say we'll be treating it as if it were a normal campaign."
The Philadelphia Daily News ran a front page with an image on Trump with his hand in the air and the words "The New Furor."
John Featherman at Philly.com wrote: "It's time to reject Donald Trump's xenophobic fascism."
"Trump's presence in the race is no longer simply a distraction. It has reared its ugly head and is quickly poisoning our nation's social and political health at a time when much healing is needed."
Acclaimed investigative journalist, Glenn Greenwald wrote a column, "Donald Trump's "Ban Muslims" Proposal Is Wildly Dangerous But Not Far Outside the US Mainstream," for The Intercept and said: "Given that an Isis attack in Paris just helped fuel the sweeping election victory of an actually fascist party in France, it's a bit mystifying how someone can be so sanguine about the likelihood of a Trump victory in the U.S. In fact, with a couple of even low-level ISIS attacks successfully carried out on American soil, it's not at all hard to imagine. But Trump does not need to win, or even get close to winning, for his rhetoric and the movement that he's stoking to be dangerous in the extreme."
Matt Ford, of The Atlantic, tweeted "The immediate danger isn't Trump's actual policy, but the bigotry and violence that it both legitimizes and encourages."
Some publications such as the New York Times were dismissive of Trump's statement, arguing he had no chance of election.
Al Jazeera's Sana Saeed wrote: "Tired of people telling us not to be afraid - Trump may not win but his words will last; there are ppl who support his crap.
Author of the Harry Potter series, J.K Rowling tweeted that Trump was worse than Voldemort.
Gary Younge's opinion piece for the Guardian said Donald Trump shows "hate speech is now out and proud in the mainstream" and pointed out that he had already "insulted Mexicans, disabled people, Jews, Chinese and immigrants".
Younge argued that Trump's appeal lies in his arrogance and ignorance.
"He articulates the frustration and bewilderment of that section of uneducated, unskilled, low-paid white America, whose wages have stagnated and social mobility has stalled that is nostalgic for its local privileges and global status. In recent times, they have lost wars, jobs, houses and confidence."
