President Trump tweeted Monday morning that the temporary travel restrictions he wants to place on six Muslim-majority countries are indeed "a travel ban" and criticized the Department of Justice for submitting a "watered down" version of the executive order to the Supreme Court.
The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court decision last month that blocked the administration's revised travel restriction. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled the order "drips with religious intolerance."
That was a revised version of Trump's first executive order with broader reach in January, which was also quickly challenged in the courts.
"People, the lawyers and the courts can call it whatever they want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is, a TRAVEL BAN!" Trump wrote.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/871674214356484096
Minutes later, he wrote, "The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C." He added the courts are "slow and political" and that "extreme vetting" would help keep the country safe.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/871675245043888128
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/871677472202477568
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/871679061847879682
After Saturday's terrorist attack in London, Trump wrote "we need the travel ban as an extra level of safety" and that "we must stop being politically correct."
On Jan. 31, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer scolded the press for referring to the executive order as a "travel ban," even though Trump himself called it a ban.