President Trump said late Friday that he will likely issue a new executive order on extreme vetting of migrants early next week, following a federal appeals court ruling against his earlier order to temporarily bar people from seven terror-prone nations.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Mr. Trump said his administration has “a lot of other options, including just filing a brand new order.”
“We need speed for reasons of security, so it very well could be” a new order, Mr. Trump said, adding that he could issue it as early as Monday.
He said he is contemplating “new security measures.”
“We have very, very strong vetting,” Mr. Trump said. “We are going to have people coming to our country that want to be here for good reason.”
Speaking of the court ruling on Thursday, the president said, “We will win that battle. The unfortunate part is that it takes time statutorily, but we will win that battle.”
During a news conference earlier Friday, Mr. Trump said he’ll do “whatever’s necessary” to protect the country from terrorism, in light of the federal appeals court ruling against his extreme vetting order.
“We are going to keep our country safe,” Mr. Trump said. “We’ll be doing something very rapidly having to do with the additional security for our country. You’ll be seeing that sometime next week.”
The president didn’t directly refer to his daily classified intelligence briefings, but his comments suggested that the information he’s received since taking office has made his extreme vetting order for migrants from seven terror-prone nations even more urgent to implement.
“While I’ve been president, which is just for a very short period of time, I’ve learned tremendous things that you could only learn, frankly, if you were in a certain position, namely president,” Mr. Trump said. “And there are tremendous threats to our country. We will not allow that to happen, I can tell you that right now.”
He added, “we’ll be going forward and we’ll be doing things to continue to make our country safe. It will happen rapidly and we will not allow people into our country who are looking to do harm to our people.”
But he also said he is confident his administration will win the court case on further appeal.
“It shouldn’t have taken this much time because safety is a primary reason,” Mr. Trump said of the court case. “We’re going to do whatever’s necessary to keep our country safe. One of the reasons I’m standing here today is the security of our country, the voters felt I would give it the best security.”
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday night upheld a temporary restraining order that blocks the president’s extreme vetting plan.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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