After a weekend of pushback, President Donald Trump defended his travel ban Monday morning.
Trump decried negative polls about the executive order and appeared to respond to speculation that his chief strategist Stephen Bannon is the one pulling the strings in the Oval Office.
“Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election,” Trump tweeted early Monday morning. “Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting.”
Any negative polls are fake news, just like the CNN, ABC, NBC polls in the election. Sorry, people want border security and extreme vetting.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 6, 2017
A CNN poll released on Friday found that 55 percent of Americans polled view Trump’s travel order as an attempt to ban Muslims from entering the U.S., despite the Trump administrations attempts to say otherwise.
On Friday night, U.S. District Judge James Robart temporarily blocked Trump’s ban on travelers and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Trump dismissed Robart’s ruling on Twitter throughout the weekend, calling it “ridiculous” and saying it will be overturned. On Monday morning, the states of Washington and Minnesota and 97 tech companies joined the fight against Trump’s travel ban by filing legal briefs.
Trump then tweeted, “I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it. Some FAKE NEWS media, in order to marginalize, lies!”
I call my own shots, largely based on an accumulation of data, and everyone knows it. Some FAKE NEWS media, in order to marginalize, lies!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 6, 2017
The tweet comes after Saturday’s episode of Saturday Night Live mocked growing reports — including recent op-eds from the New York Times and Time magazine — that Bannon is the one in charge of the Trump administration. The NBC show, which is a frequent target of Trump’s on Twitter, opened with a sketch of Bannon as the Grim Reaper offering Trump terrible advice. The skit ended with Trump calling Bannon “Mr. President” and relinquishing his Oval Office chair to his chief strategist.
Late Sunday night, the New York Times posted a story detailing the behind-the-scenes of Trump’s first two weeks in office, comparing it to “D-Day” and painting a picture of Bannon as finishing “another 16-hour day planning new lines of attack.” The story also described Trump as spending his nights retiring upstairs “to recharge, vent and intermittently use Twitter.”
“The failing @nytimes writes total fiction concerning me,” Trump tweeted on Monday. “They have gotten it wrong for two years, and now are making up stories & sources!”
The failing @nytimes writes total fiction concerning me. They have gotten it wrong for two years, and now are making up stories & sources!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 6, 2017
Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer also took issue with the Times‘ report Monday, saying the paper owes Trump an apology. He called the report “unacceptable,” citing “blatant factual errors” and doubled down on Trump being the one in charge.
“He is the guy that calls the shots,” he said. “He develops the policies, he implements the policies, he makes the key decisions.”
