The U.S. Justice Department should not have “watered down” the ban on travel to America from seven Muslim majority countries in an attempt to win judicial approval for the controversial executive order, President Donald Trump said on Monday, publicly disowning the position taken by his own administration.
“The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C,” Mr. Trump posted on Twitter, continuing with the anti-terrorism rhetoric that he launched following the London Bridge terror attack.
After the original order was stayed by courts, the administration issued a revised order in which, that provision was removed along with several others. The original order issued by Mr. Trump soon after assuming office allowed prioritisation of religious minorities while admitting refugees from Muslims countries.
The revised order has also been stayed by the judiciary, and the case has now reached the Supreme Court for a final verdict.
The oblique religious criteria for admission into the U.S. imposed by the order was among the reasons for its collapse in the judicial review.
Mr. Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric against terrorism soon after the London attack. He first criticised the city’s Mayor Sadiq Khan.
In another tweet, he said: “We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don’t get smart it will only get worse.”
The London attack appears to have provided a new backdrop for Mr. Trump to revive his campaign rhetoric amid the chaos and drift that has paralysed this administration. After sniping at American gun control advocates that the London terrorists used knives and vehicles on Sunday, the President began his Monday with a series of tweets targeting opponents of his travel ban policy.
‘Courts are slow’
“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!.”
“The Justice Dept. should ask for an expedited hearing of the watered down Travel Ban before the Supreme Court - & seek much tougher version,” he said in another post. “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!” he said in a fourth.
Earlier court orders took into account the public statements made by the President on the issue, and his new Twitter barrage debases the argument, judicial and public, that his officials have been building over the recent months.
