When he stood as a candidate for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination? He’ll never get it, we thought.
He did.
When he ran against Hillary Clinton for President? He’ll never win, we thought.
He did.
When he won? It won’t be as bad as we think, we hoped.
It is. Actually, it’s not: it’s far worse.
A week into his new job President Trump is making his presence felt around the world and diabolical doesn’t even begin to cover it.
On Friday afternoon, just before 5pm, Trump signed an executive order which triggered chaos, confusion and condemnation almost immediately. It is hard to comprehend the enormity and reality of this move.
It renders the Statue of Liberty sadly redundant. The order, to protect the nation from foreign terrorist entry into America, temporarily bans the admission of 134 million people, suspends all refugee admissions for four months and authorises “extreme vetting”.
“I’m establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. Don’t want them here,” President Trump said. “We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people.”
The action bans travel from seven majority Muslim countries — Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen. Dual nationals born in any of the seven banned countries are also covered by the ban even if they hold passports from a US-allied country like Australia.
BuzzFeed Australia has reported that Qld’s 2015 Young Australian of the Year, engineer, author and TV presenter Yassmin Abdel-Magied falls into that category and will be unable to give a scheduled speech in the US because of the ban. “[The policy] is not even dog-whistling, this is like wolf-howling with a boombox. This sort of policy has never been shown to reduce terrorism… these moves are what led to the erosion of international norms, and soon enough, human rights,” she said. “If the purpose of the policy is to stop terrorists, then [the Trump administration] should review visas from countries from where terrorists actually heralded from like Saudi Arabia.”
Fairfax’s US correspondent Paul McGeough reported the sinister reality of the countries targeted: “In the 40 years to 2015, not a single American was killed on US soil by citizens from any of the seven countries targeted – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – according to research by the conservative-leaning Cato Institute. But the same research shows that in the same period nearly 3000 Americans were killed by citizens of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Turkey — most victims of the September 11 attacks.”
They are countries in which Donald Trump has business interests. Pakistan, Turkey and Afghanistan also escaped inclusion.
The legality of the immigration ban is being challenged, its morality is being protested widely and its implementation is creating disarray at airports around the world.
The White House has sent airlines conflicting advice about permanent residents and green card holders. Technically these citizens ought to be able to travel back to the states but human rights groups say some green card holders trying to return from holidays, business or study are being stopped in foreign airports.
I want to repeat: Green card holders were handcuffed, their social media was reviewed, and they were asked their views on Trump#MuslimBan
— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) January 28, 2017