Trump offers help, touts need for travel ban

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump took to Twitter amid the unfolding deadly drama in London on Saturday to offer US help to Britain and to promote his controversial travel ban as an extra level of security for Americans.

“Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the UK, we will be there – WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!” Trump said in one of two tweets.

Trump also spoke with British Prime Minister Theresa May to offer condolences and offered Washington’s “full support” in investigating and bringing the perpetrators to justice, the White House said in a statement.

In another tweet, Trump said “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!”

The US Department of Homeland Security issued a statement late on Saturday saying: “At this time, we have no information to indicate a specific, credible terror threat in the United States.”

Trump’s appeal for his travel ban, which he says is needed to protect Americans from terrorist attacks, followed his emergency request that the Supreme Court reinstate the executive order that would bar people entering the United States from six predominantly Muslim countries.

Critics say his reasoning is flawed and assail the ban, which has been blocked by lower courts, as discriminatory.

The US State Department condemned “the cowardly attacks targeting innocent civilians” in a statement, and echoed Trump’s readiness to provide assistance.

“All Americans stand in solidarity with the people of the United Kingdom,” it said in the statement. – Reuters