Trump Blasts ‘Political’ Ruling Against Travel Ban 2.0

A visibly frustrated President Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at a ruling earlier in the day by a federal judge in Hawaii putting his revised temporary travel ban on ice.

Speaking at a rally in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump argued the “watered down” travel ban he issued after another judge blocked his original executive order was constitutional. He said he agreed to revise the first executive order at the request of his lawyers.

“The danger is clear. The law is clear. The need for my executive order is clear.”

“I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place,” he said. “The danger is clear. The law is clear. The need for my executive order is clear.”

It was Trump’s second rally of the day, after an earlier appearance in Detroit during which he vowed to make the city the car capital of the world again.

At a hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson — an appointee of President Obama — appeared sympathetic to the argument that Trump’s past comments on the campaign trail were relevant to the allegation that the executive order amounts to a Muslim ban.

The order temporarily halts the refugee resettlement program and prohibits travel for 90 days from six terrorism-compromised countries.

At one point in his speech, Trump quoted from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 that gives the president wide latitude in excluding foreigners for national security reasons.

“We’re talking about the safety of our nation, the safety and security of our people,” he said.

Trump did not call Watson a “so-called judge” as he labeled a federal judge in Seattle who blocked his first executive order, but the president made his displeasure clear.

“You don’t think this ruling was done by judge for political reasons, do you? No,” he said, sarcastically. “This ruling makes us look weak — which, by the way, we no longer are, believe me.”

Speculation has swirled in Washington that the White House was ready to abandon the proposed American Health Care Act amid widespread defections among rank-and-file Republicans in Congress. But Trump showed no sign of distancing himself from the bill.

“We are going to repeal and replace, horrible, disastrous Obamacare,” he said. “If we leave Obamacare in place, millions and millions of people will be forced off their plans.”

Trump predicted Tennessee soon would have no insurance companies on the federal health care exchange under current law.

“The insurers are fleeing,” he said. “It’s a catastrophic situation.”

Trump criticized the “wise guy” who helped design Obamacare and later admitted that the Obama administration took advantage of the stupidity of the American people in deceptive statements about the health care overhaul during the legislative debate. That was a reference to Jonathan Gruber, now a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.

Trump also expressed frustration with hyper-partisanship and Democratic obstructionism.

“If we submitted the Democrats’ plan — drawn everything perfect for the Democrats — we wouldn’t get one vote from the Democrats,” he said. “That’s the way it is.”

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Trump said the bill would give states more flexibility to run Medicaid programs for the poor, repeal Obamacare taxes, and offer tax credits to help people buy insurance. He also vowed to bring down the overall cost of medicine.

Trump said he wants to pass the health bill fast because it is a prerequisite to reforming the tax code.

“And then we go on to tax reductions, which I like,” he said.