BackDonald Trump angry about ‘watered down’ travel ban that he watered down
It was Donald Trump who revoked the original travel ban when he signed the second version on 6 March after his first executive order was blocked by courts
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Washington: President Donald Trump criticized the latest version of his own travel ban as “watered down" in a Twitter tirade Monday that also second-guessed his justice department’s strategy in taking the case to the Supreme Court.
“The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C.," Trump wrote in a series of Twitter messages that started at 6:25 am.
In fact, it was Trump who revoked the original ban when he signed the second version on 6 March after his first executive order was blocked by courts. The latest version, restricting entry into the US by people from six predominantly Muslim countries, also has been put on hold amid arguments it unconstitutionally targets Muslims.
The justice department asked the Supreme Court on 1 June to hear the government’s appeal on a faster-than-usual schedule, but not quickly enough for the president.
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“The Justice Dept. should ask for an expedited hearing of the watered down Travel Ban before the Supreme Court - & seek much tougher version!" Trump tweeted on Monday.
The government has asked the court to decide by the end of June whether to hear the case and suggested requiring written briefs to be submitted before the justices start their next term in October. The solicitor general’s office could have sought a quicker schedule, and Trump could have ordered it to do so.
But the government can’t ask the court to impose a “much tougher version" than the ban Trump ordered—the justices will be looking at the order that was signed by the president.
Trump’s initial travel order—issued a week after he took office—threw airports around the world into chaos and prompted an outcry from the technology industry and US universities before it was blocked in court. After signing the revised version, he later said it was needed to protect against “radical Islamic terrorists."
The Virginia-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals on 25 May upheld a nationwide halt to the policy, saying the travel ban was driven by unconstitutional religious motivations. The majority pointed to Trump’s campaign vow to bar Muslims from entering the country and to the special preference for religious minorities in the earlier version of the ban.
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By calling the second version a “watered down, politically correct" version of his first order, Trump will give new ammunition to critics who say he has never veered from what they contend is his original goal of targeting Muslims with the policy.
The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
What to call the travel policy has been at issue, too. White House press secretary Sean Spicer insisted that it was “not a Muslim ban, it’s not a travel ban" in a 31 January briefing when he was asked about the planned order. “It’s a vetting system to keep America safe," Spicer said.
“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 wrote Monday.
“In any event we are EXTREME VETTING people coming into the US in order to help keep our country safe. The courts are slow and political!" Trump added. Bloomberg
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