--- title: John Brennan: Trump Travel Ban Is ‘Simplistic and Misguided’ description: Former CIA director John Brennan has criticized President Donald Trump's proposed executive travel ban order. canonical: https://time.com/4724389/cia-john-brennan-donald-trump-travel-ban/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-04T11:48:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:51:41.458Z article:section: Politics og:title: John Brennan: Trump Travel Ban Is ‘Simplistic and Misguided’ og:description: John Brennan also said he thought the ban would be counterproductive og:url: https://time.com/4724389/cia-john-brennan-donald-trump-travel-ban/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9219f998529e0290/6988a54dcd1bba65767023f4/john-brennan-cia-director-hacking.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: CIA Director John Brennan Testifies To Senate Committee Hearing On National Security og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Brennan: Trump Travel Ban Is ‘Simplistic and Misguided’ twitter:description: John Brennan also said he thought the ban would be counterproductive twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9219f998529e0290/6988a54dcd1bba65767023f4/john-brennan-cia-director-hacking.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Former CIA Director: President Trump’s Travel Ban Is ‘Simplistic and Misguided’ by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Apr 4, 2017 11:48 AM UTC  Former CIA Director John Brennan testifies during a Senate Committee hearing on national security on Capitol Hill June 16, 2016 in Washington, DC. Former CIA Director John Brennan testifies during a Senate Committee hearing on national security on Capitol Hill June 16, 2016 in Washington, DC.Evy Mages/Getty Images by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Apr 4, 2017 11:48 AM UTC [John Brennan](http://time.com/20200/brennan-calls-cia-hacking-charges-beyond-the-scope-of-reason/), who directed the CIA from March 2013 to January 2017, has described [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4691425/donald-trump-russia-obama-fbi/)‘s proposed executive order [banning travel](http://fortune.com/2017/03/15/most-powerful-women-careers-advice-networking-getting-noticed/) to the U.S. by visitors from seven majority-Muslim countries as “too simplistic and misguided.” Speaking during an interview with the BBC, Brennan said that while he thinks “it is very important that there are measures taken to protect countries from individuals who may be trying to enter the borders for terrorist purposes,” the proposed executive order would be counterproductive. “First of all, a lot of citizens from those countries who have very legitimate reason to travel to the United States—family, personal, professional, educational—I think are really going to see this as reflecting a different approach and a different tone from the United States which has prided itself on our 241 years of welcoming people from all walks of life and all countries,” he said. > [](https://twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/849013512969965568) This is not the first time Brennan and the president have not seen eye to eye. In [April last year](http://time.com/4289691/donald-trump-john-brennan-waterboarding/), Trump criticized comments made by Brennan about enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding. “I think his comments are ridiculous,” he told _Fox and Friends_. “I mean, they chop off heads and they drown people in cages with 50 in a cage, in big, steel heavy cages, drop them right into the water drown people, and we can’t water-board and we can’t do anything.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4724389/cia-john-brennan-donald-trump-travel-ban/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4724389/cia-john-brennan-donald-trump-travel-ban/"},"headline":"Former CIA Director: President Trump’s Travel Ban Is ‘Simplistic and Misguided’","datePublished":"2017-04-04T11:48:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:51:41.458Z","description":"John Brennan also said he thought the ban would be counterproductive","url":"https://time.com/4724389/cia-john-brennan-donald-trump-travel-ban/","keywords":["President Donald Trump","CIA","travel ban","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9219f998529e0290/6988a54dcd1bba65767023f4/john-brennan-cia-director-hacking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9219f998529e0290/6988a54dcd1bba65767023f4/john-brennan-cia-director-hacking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"CIA Director John Brennan Testifies To Senate Committee Hearing On National Security","caption":"CIA Director John Brennan testifies during a Senate Committee hearing on national security on Capitol Hill June 16, 2016 in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Evy Mages/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/president-donald-trump/","name":"President Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4724389/cia-john-brennan-donald-trump-travel-ban/","name":"Former CIA Director: President Trump’s Travel Ban Is ‘Simplistic and Misguided’"}}]}] ```