Trump doubles down on 'travel ban', phrase and process
US President Donald Trump has defended his “travel ban” on Twitter and called for a speedy hearing of the matter by Supreme Court in the aftermath of the London Bridge terror attack.
Defending the “travel ban” as both a phrase and process, President Donald Trump said on Monday the justice department should seek a quicker hearing at the Supreme Court against the stay ordered by lower courts, and go for a tougher version.
In a string of tweets, prompted by the London terror attack, Trump fumed against critics of the phrase “travel ban”, courts for ordering stays on it and the justice department for watering down the order from the first, more stringent version.
And he escalated his feud with London mayor Sadiq Khan, 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!”
Trump had misinterpreted a remark from Khan — “no reason to be alarmed” by the heightened police activity in London — to attack the mayor, who refused to join the feud saying, through a spokesperson, that he had more important things to do.
At home, Trump is using terrorist attacks to double down on this “travel ban” to temporarily prevent citizens from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the US. “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!,” he tweeted.
“The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C.,” he wrote in another tweet, adding, “The Justice Dept. should ask for an expedited hearing of the watered down Travel Ban before the Supreme Court - & seek much tougher version!”
He rounded off with this: “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!”