PSYCHIATRIST: NEVER MIND
President says revised travel ban coming soon
President Trump plans to reissue a travel ban next week that will be “very much tailored” to satisfy the objections raised by the federal judges who ruled against him last week.
“We can tailor the order to that decision and get just about everything — in some ways, more,” Trump said at a press conference yesterday. “We have some of the best lawyers in the country working on it.”
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week blocked the travel ban, which halted noncitizens from seven Muslimmajority countries from entering the U.S. and suspended the refugee program.
In new court filings yesterday, Trump administration lawyers said a ban that focuses solely on foreigners who have never entered the U.S. — instead of green card holders already in the country — would pose no legal difficulties.
Trump said the executive order would be issued in the early or middle part of next week.
The new president, still in his first month on the job, denied reports that his administration is in chaos, proclaiming it instead “a fine-tuned machine.”
He told reporters he had “inherited a mess” from President Obama and rattled off more than a dozen self-proclaimed accomplishments.
Trump has been trying to shift the focus off ousted National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. But The Washington Post reported last night that Flynn denied to the FBI that he had discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador — something intelligence reports are said to have revealed he did.
CNN reported last night, however, that the FBI did not expect to charge him with a crime.
Trump has tried to turn the scandal around on reporters and intelligence officers by blasting the leaking of classified information.
“What he did wasn’t wrong,” Trump said of Flynn. “What was wrong was the way that other people, including yourselves in this room, were given that information, because that was classified information that was given illegally. That’s the real problem.”
There were signs that Trump was having problems finding a replacement for Flynn last night. Retired Navy Vice Admiral Robert Harward, who was reportedly Trump’s first choice to take the job, turned it down, citing family reasons, according to Fox News.
Meanwhile, in a second goround at appointing a Secretary of Labor, Trump yesterday nominated Alexander Acosta, a federal attorney who has already passed the Senate confirmation process three times for various other posts.
Acosta will replace Andrew Puzder, the CEO of the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., who withdrew his nomination amid backlash from Senate Republicans.
Trump will return to familiar territory — a campaignstyle rally in Florida tomorrow on his way to Mar-A-Lago for the weekend.