Trump: New order will ‘make our country safe’
President Trump is mulling signing a “brand-new” executive order on immigration after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a restraining order on his travel ban that barred all entries from seven Muslim-majority countries and suspended the nation’s refugee program.
After predicting his administration would win the legal battle over his order and vowing to take action “very rapidly” after the appeals decision, Trump told reporters on Air Force One his administration is also considering other options, including “just filing a brandnew order.”
Although a White House official said the administration would not ask the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court ruling — a comment that contradicted a tweet Trump sent Thursday night vowing to “SEE YOU IN COURT” — Chief of Staff Reince Priebus later said “every single court option is on the table.”
“We’ll be doing things to continue to make our country safe,” Trump said during a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
“It will happen rapidly,” Trump said. “We will not allow people into our country who are looking to do harm to our people.”
Trump went on to say he “learned tremendous things that you could only learn, frankly, if you were in a certain position, namely president. And there are tremendous threats to our country. We will not allow that to happen, I can tell you that.”
In a tweet yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump “ought to see the writing on the wall,” abandon the executive order and “roll up his sleeves (and) come up (with) a bipartisan plan to keep us safe.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to comment.
Seattle U.S. District Judge James Robart last week approved a temporary restraining order halting the ban nationwide after Washington state and Minnesota sued, leading to the federal government’s appeal.
Robart’s ruling came hours after a federal judge in Boston declined to extend a temporary injunction against the travel ban.