The Ninth Circuit decision against Trump’s temporary travel ban argues that Trump did not “provide any link between an individual’s nationality and their propensity to commit terrorism or their inherent dangerousness” or explain “why permitting entry of nationals from the six designated countries under current protocols would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
In a footnote, the judges cite a Trump tweet in support of their contention.
Indeed, the President recently confirmed his assessment that it is the “countries” that are inherently dangerous, rather than the 180 million individual nationals of those countries who are barred from entry under the President’s “travel ban.” See Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (June 5, 2017, 6:20 PM), https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/871899511525961728 (“That’s right, we need a TRAVEL BAN for certain DANGEROUS countries, not some politically correct term that won’t help us protect our people!”) (emphasis in original); see also Elizabeth Landers, White House: Trump’s tweets are “official statements”, CNN (June 6, 2017, 4:37 PM), http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/06/politics/trump-tweets-official-statements/ (reporting the White House Press Secretary’s confirmation that the President’s tweets are “considered official statements by the President of the United States”).
Legal commentator Dahlia Lithwick cheers this footnote for taking Trump’s tweets seriously and holding him to account for them. I see no reason for treating Trump’s tweets any less authoritatively than quotes from his speeches or press conferences. But the footnote doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Obviously Trump believes that it is the entry of individuals from those countries that poses a danger to the United States, and the tweet in no way contradicts this belief. Lithwick mentions that people sometimes defend Trump statements by saying that they should be taken “seriously but not literally.” I’m skeptical of that distinction, but in this case the judges seem to have taken him hyperliterally. Whatever else may be said for or against Trump’s policy, it is probably not based on a fear that that six shapes on a map are going to attack us.