Just hours after Hawaii District Judge Derrick Watson imposed a nationwide ban on Trump's second travel ban, Trump blasted the ruling against the "watered-down version of the first order" which he called an "unprecedented judicial overreach" and said it "makes us look weak" in the fight against terrorism. Trump said the second order had been tailored "to the dictates" of 9th circuit court’s “flawed” ruling and accused the Federal Judge of being "politically motivated."
Trump says his 2nd travel ban = a “watered-down version” of 1st ban—he wants to go back to 1st ban
Lawsuits will likely cite this statement pic.twitter.com/2F15aTEXaD
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 16, 2017
Speaking at a campaign rally in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump called the ruling "terrible" and, as we speculated earlier, pledged to take the legal fight all the way to the nation’s highest court. Unlike the first time when his order was blocked, and Trump made the same hollow, at the time threat this time Trump may have no alternative but to indeed go all the way to SCOTUS, unless he wants to drop the matter entirely.
"We're going to take our case as far as it needs to go, including all the way to the Supreme Court,” Trump said. “And we're going to win."
Trump also suggested undoing the changes in the revised ban and revert to the original order, which he added is the one he wanted to do in the first place:: "I think we ought to go back to the first ban, and go all the way," he added. "That’s what I wanted to do in the first place.”
The comments, widely expected by most, were Trump’s first since a Hawaii judged blocked the implementation of his revised travel ban which was set to go into effect Thursday.
Of course, his fiery statement immediately found critics, such as the NYT's Maggie Haberman, who said on Twitter that "What Trump just said is among the worst things he could have said if his goal was to make his travel E.O. legal."
"This ruling makes us look weak," Trump says, then continues not helping legal case saying it's a "watered down version of the first one."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 16, 2017
What Trump just said is among the worst things he could have said if his goal was to make his travel E.O. legal.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 16, 2017
Others, such as Norm Eisen, the former White House ethics lawyer to President Obama, agreed with Haberman, saying that Trump's remarks could hurt him if he challenges the ruling.
"Legal disaster--he is digging grave for the second EO and maybe the 3rd one," Eisen said in a tweet.
Legal disaster--he is digging grave for the second EO and maybe the 3rd one https://t.co/9U6QrQ9RcA
— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) March 16, 2017
He was referring to Trump's statements that his new travel ban was "a watered down version of the first one."