Travel Ban, Trump pushes to restore the original

7 years ago - Published in Finance, Fundamental Analysis

President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated his push for his executive order banning travel and immigration from six majority-Muslim countries, lashing out against his own Justice Department and potentially exacerbating the continued legal battle over the order. 

"People, the lawyers and the courts can call it whatever they want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is, a TRAVEL BAN!" Trump said in the first of a series of tweets Monday morning.

"The Justice Dept. should ask for an expedited hearing of the watered down Travel Ban before the Supreme Court – & seek much tougher version!" the president tweeted. He did not specify what a "tougher version" might entail.

In another message, Trump took a swipe at the courts and said the U.S. needs to a better job of screening people coming into the country because of concern about terrorism: "In any event we are EXTREME VETTING people coming into the U.S. in order to help keep our country safe. The courts are slow and political!"

A petition by the Department of Justice last week asked the Supreme Court's nine-justice panel to rule on the legality of Trump's order. In a May ruling halting the order, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals argued that the travel ban "drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination."

The Trump administration had vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court since the earlier version of Trump's executive order on travel was slapped down by the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in February.

Trump's Monday tweets could complicate the DOJ's legal case, as the department has tried to distance the revised order from the earlier version.

The White House initially tried to reframe Trump's use of "travel ban" when the executive order was first announced in January.

Trump revived his call for the travel ban shortly after news broke of the weekend's terror attacks in London. He was then harshly criticized when he appeared to misconstrue a statement while launching an attack on London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who said there was "no reason to be alarmed" by the visible increase in police activity in the wake of the attacks.
The President resumed his attacks on Khan Monday morning, tweeting, "Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his 'no reason to be alarmed' statement. MSM is working hard to sell it!"