As protests erupt at major American airports over the White House’s new immigration and entry ban from seven majority-Muslim countries, President Trump had a surprisingly sanguine assessment of the situation.
“It’s working out very nicely,” Trump told reporters early Saturday evening. In fact, he pointed to the airports themselves as proof: “You see it at the airports, you see it all over, it’s working out very nicely, and we’re going to have a very strict ban, and we’re going to have extreme vetting, which we should have had in this country for many years.”
The “extreme vetting” that Trump mentioned has so far barred an award-winning Iranian scientist from moving to the US for a new job and stranded a Clemson University professor abroad, among others.
If you do look at the airports, you see there are significant protests at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and Dulles Airport outside of Washington, where large crowds have gathered to oppose Trump’s new executive order, provide legal assistance to those being detained, and cheer those being allowed to enter through security and into the US.
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#breaking the 1st woman who was held has been let through. Crowds chant USA as she's reunited with her family. pic.twitter.com/A7s3SIRK11
— Hannah VanHuss Davis (@hannahdinhd) January 28, 2017
My colleague Liz Plank has been reporting live from the protest at JFK if you want to see what things there look like.