Haunted by his own words

President Trump’s effort to impose travel restrictions on six Muslim-majority nations has bumped up against devastating evidence about his ultimate intentions. The star witness: Trump himself.

Indeed, two federal judges who ordered a halt to his latest proposed travel ban this week each cited Trump’s campaign rhetoric to surmise that the motivation may be to target people on the basis of their religious faith. In December 2015, just after the San Bernardino terrorist attack, Trump had called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the U.S. until “our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”

The federal judge from Hawaii said those “plainly worded statements” defy the new order’s “stated secular purpose.” The Maryland judge said the new order appeared to be “the effectuation of the proposed Muslim ban.”

His administration’s initial executive order, which caused alarm and confusion with its hasty rollout, was shot down in court. The revised order, which removed Iraq from the target list and tempered certain other sections, was designed to smooth the legal challenge.

But Trump did not help his cause for further judicial review in his reaction to the ruling. “I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way.”

It’s standard procedure for courts to go back to hearing records to assess congressional intent when ruling on a new law.

Trump’s challenge now is to persuade the courts that he is not setting the stage to fulfill a hyperbolic campaign promise.