Trump's new ban dodges pitfalls faced by last attempt, experts say
US President Donald Trump has issued a sweeping new travel ban for people from 12 countries, revisiting a hallmark policy of his first term in office.There are some key differences, however.The original travel ban suffered a series of legal defeats. This time, the policy appears to have been designed to avoid the same pitfalls.Its predecessor, which targeted seven predominantly Muslim countries and was dubbed the "Muslim ban" by critics, was ordered just a week after Trump took office in 2017, during his first term in the White House.The ban was amended twice to overcome court challenges, after opponents argued it was unconstitutional and illegal because it discriminated against travellers based on their religion.A scaled-back version was eventually upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018, which this new ban closely resembles.Legal experts told the BBC that it appeared Trump had learned lessons from his first attempt.Christi Jackson, an expert in US immigration law at the London firm Laura Devine Immigration, said the new ban was more legally robust as a result.While the first lacked "clarity", the new restrictions were "wider in scope" and had "clearly defined" exemptions, she said.While there are some similarities in the nations chosen by the 2017 ban and the 2025 ban, Muslim-majority states are not the express target of the latest order.Barbara McQuade, professor of law at the University of Michigan and former US attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme that, on this basis, it seemed likely to win the approval of the Supreme Court, if it was ever referred up to that level.
Trump's travel ban: Follow live updatesEverything we know about the ban so farWhy are these 12 countries on the list?Trump suspends foreign student visas at Harvard
The 12 countries subject to the harshest restrictions from 9 June are mainly in the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean, including Afghanistan, Iran and Somalia.There will be partial restrictions on travellers from another seven countries, including Cuban and Venezuelan nationals.Trump said the strength of the restrictions would be graded against the severity of the perceived threat, including from terrorism.But besides Iran, none of the 12 countries hit by the outright ban are named on the US government's state sponsors of terrorism list.In a video announcing the ban posted on X, Trump cited Sunday's incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which a man was accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at demonstrators attending a march for Israeli hostages.The alleged attacker was an Egyptian national. However, Egypt does not appear on either list.
Trump also specified high rates of people overstaying their visas as a reason for listing certain countries.However, Steven D Heller, an immigration lawyer based in the US, said there was a "lack of clarity" over what threshold had to be met by a country's overstaying rate in order for that country to be placed on Trump's ban list. That could be the basis for a successful legal challenge, he suggested."If they're relying on this notion of excessive overstay rates... they have to define what that actually means," he told the BBC.Unlike the first ban, which was to last for only 90 to 120 days, today's order has no end date.It has been met with dismay in the targeted countries. Venezuela has described the Trump administration as "supremacists who think they own the world", though Somalia has pledged to "engage in dialogue to address the concerns raised".The original ban spurred mass protests and sowed chaos at US airports. It was repealed in 2021 by Trump's successor, President Joe Biden, who called the policy "a stain on our national conscience."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
North Wales Chronicle
24 minutes ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Donald Trump and Elon Musk urged by Republicans to end feud
At a minimum, the explosion of animosity between the two powerful men could complicate the path forward for Republicans' massive tax and border spending legislation that has been promoted by Mr Trump but criticised by Mr Musk. 'I hope it doesn't distract us from getting the job done that we need to,' said representative Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Washington state. 'I think that it will boil over and they'll mend fences.' As of Friday afternoon, Mr Musk was holding his fire, posting about his various companies on social media rather than attacking the president. Mr Trump departed the White House for his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, without stopping to talk to reporters who shouted questions about his battle with Mr Musk. 'I hope that both of them come back together because when the two of them are working together, we'll get a lot more done for America than when they're at cross purposes,' senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, told Fox News host Sean Hannity. Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, sounded almost pained on social media as Mr Trump and Mr Musk volleyed insults at each other, sharing a photo composite of the two men and writing, 'But … I really like both of them.' 'Who else really wants @elonmusk and @realDonaldTrump to reconcile?' Mr Lee posted, later adding: 'Repost if you agree that the world is a better place with the Trump-Musk bromance fully intact.' So far, the feud between Mr Trump and Mr Musk is probably best described as a moving target, with plenty of opportunities for escalation or detente. Repost if you agree that the world is a better place with the Trump-Musk bromance fully intact@elonmusk @realDonaldTrump — Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) June 6, 2025 One person familiar with the president's thinking said Mr Musk wants to speak with Mr Trump, but that the president does not want to do it – or at least do it on Friday. In a series of conversations with television news presenters on Friday morning, Mr Trump showed no interest in burying the hatchet. Asked on ABC News about reports of a potential call between him and Mr Musk, the president responded: 'You mean the man who has lost his mind?' Mr Trump added in the ABC interview that he was 'not particularly' interested in talking to Mr Musk at the moment. Still, others remained hopeful that it all would blow over. 'I grew up playing hockey and there wasn't a single day that we played hockey or basketball or football or baseball, whatever we were playing, where we didn't fight. And then we'd fight, then we'd become friends again,' Mr Hannity said on his show on Thursday night. Acknowledging that it 'got personal very quick,' Mr Hannity nonetheless added that the rift was 'just a major policy difference'. House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson projected confidence that the dispute would not affect prospects for the tax and border bill. 'Members are not shaken at all,' the Republican said. 'We're going to pass this legislation on our deadline.' He added that he hopes Mr Musk and Mr Trump reconcile, saying 'I believe in redemption' and 'it's good for the party and the country if all that's worked out.' But he also had something of a warning for the billionaire entrepreneur. 'I'll tell you what, do not doubt and do not second-guess and don't ever challenge the president of the United States, Donald Trump,' Mr Johnson said. 'He is the leader of the party. He's the most consequential political figure of this generation and probably the modern era.'
The Independent
29 minutes ago
- The Independent
Meghan shares video of family trip to Disneyland for Lili's fourth birthday
The Duchess of Sussex has shared another intimate video of the family celebrating Princess Lilibet's fourth birthday at Disneyland. The post on Instagram showed the family enjoying rides at the California attraction, drawing comparisons with Harry's childhood trip to Florida's Walt Disney World with Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1993. The montage also features a clip of Archie, six, and Lili meeting Disney princess Elsa, from the film Frozen. Meghan wears a Minnie Mouse hat in some of the snaps featured in the video, while another image shows a two-tier Little Mermaid-themed birthday cake for Lili. The duchess captioned the video: 'Thank you @disneyland for giving our family two days of pure joy!' The footage was reminiscent of photos taken of the duke when he was eight and his mother Diana took him and William to Walt Disney World. At the time, the royal siblings were photographed sitting at the front of a log on the Splash Mountain ride, with adults from their mother's entourage behind them and Diana seated at the back. Meghan's post follows a number of family shots over recent days to mark Lili's birthday. In one, she posted a throwback video of herself twerking in a bid to bring on labour while pregnant with the princess, while another post featured a black and white snap of herself cuddling Lili. In another post, she described how Lili's relationship with Harry was 'the sweetest bond to watch unfold'. She shared two photos of the princess with her father the duke, adding: 'Daddy's little girl and favorite adventurer. Happy birthday Lili!' Lili – the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's youngest child – was born on June 4 2021 and was named Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. Lilibet is named after her great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II.
Daily Mail
29 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
'Victory for American people' as Fauci phone and hard drives seized in Covid probe
Hard drives and a cell phone seized from Dr Anthony Fauci could shed light on key decisions during the Covid pandemic - including lockdowns and mask edicts. FBI director Kash Patel revealed Thursday the Trump administration had recovered the devices, calling it a 'great breakthrough' and a 'victory for the American people.' Fauci was chief medical adviser during the pandemic but flip-flopped on crucial Covid safety information - such as mask-wearing - and sought to silence scientists whose views, including the lab-leak theory, clashed with received wisdom. Speaking Thursday on the Joe Rogan Experience, Patel outlined the government's continuing investigation into the origins of the pandemic and the federal response. Patel said investigators had long struggled to locate the devices Fauci used while serving as White House medical adviser - records that could shed light on key decisions surrounding lockdowns, mask mandates, and ties between Fauci's former agency and the Wuhan laboratory central to the lab leak theory. During the episode - where Patel shared a cigar with Rogan and touched on topics ranging from Covid to UFOs - he revealed the FBI had recovered the phone and hard drives just days before the interview was recorded. Patel did not clarify when the phone was in use, how investigators verified its connection to Fauci, or how the devices were obtained. Nor did he disclose what the FBI's 'multiple investigations' into the pandemic's origin have uncovered so far. It is unclear exactly when the phone was used and how they verified it belonged to Fauci. He also warned against drawing premature conclusions, noting 'everything's not necessarily in there' and that potentially relevant data may have been erased. Still, Patel called the discovery 'a victory for the American people' and said his team is actively reviewing the contents of the devices. Patel said: 'We found it [the devices], and at least we can tell the American people we've been looking because it is of public importance to figure out, did that guy lie? 'Did he intentionally mislead the world and cause countless deaths? 'We owe those answers to the American people, and the best evidence ever is always the people's evidence who created it. So now we're going to go and exploit those hard drives.' 'We did find it [the cell phone], we're not done, we're still looking and we're on the case.' Patel did not specify how his team got the old phone or how they verified it was Fauci's. Generally, a warrant is required to seize a cell phone, even for a government official. There are no publicly available warrants out against Fauci. The FBI and CIA have both asserted they think Covid most likely originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, which was conducting risky experiments on coronaviruses in the years leading up to the pandemic. Some of those experiments were funded by U.S. taxpayer money through grants awarded by Fauci's old department, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Fauci, once seen as an 'adult in the room' amid a chaotic and confusing government response to the initial 2020 outbreak, has seen his sparkling public image take a hit in recent years. Leaked emails show that in early 2020 he commissioned a paper denouncing the lab-leak theory as a conspiracy, then publicized the study at a White House news conference weeks later without disclosing his involvement. He and other public health experts also publicly dismissed the lab leak - with Fauci saying in June 2021 that it was 'a very, very, very, very remote possibility.' It later emerged that, as the head of the NIAID, he presided over the allocation of taxpayer-funded grants for virus-enhancing research at the WIV years before the pandemic began. A federal watchdog found the NIH 'did not effectively monitor' those experiments or check whether they involved pathogens with pandemic risk. Fauci also privately expressed concern the virus may have been the product of a research accident. Internationally, other intelligence agencies have also supported the lab-leak theory. The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) carried out a secret investigation into the origins of Covid nicknamed Project Saaremaa during the pandemic, sharing the findings with the U.S. in December 2024. Investigators found unpublished dissertations from 2019 and 2020 that allegedly discussed the effects of coronaviruses on the human body. Additionally, uncovered materials revealed Chinese scientists had 'an unusually large amount of knowledge about the supposedly novel virus available at an unusually early stage.' Based on the materials BND agents found and analyzed, they used a 'Probability Index' to measure the reliability of information, which determined the lab-leak theory was 'probable' with an '80 to 95 per cent' certainty. Robert Redfield, former CDC director when the pandemic erupted, also accused American and British health agencies of shutting down concerns over potential lab leaks. He has previously told he is '100 per cent' convinced Covid was the result of scientists becoming infected while carrying out high-risk experiments to boost the infectivity of bat viruses amid low biosecurity in Wuhan labs. Fauci has denied all accusations of Covid being 'covered up' or originating from a lab. Last year he told a U.S. House panel that he had not suppressed lab leak theories or influenced research to discredit it. He has also called accusations that he covered it up 'preposterous.' Patel said: 'My mission has always been to put out the truth, whatever the consequences, whoever it's against. What did Fauci get wrong? From telling people not to wear masks to claiming vaccines stopped infections Don't wear masks, do wear masks As global concern for Covid was surfacing in March 2020, Fauci told Americans that there was 'no need' to wear a face mask. He said they may only help people 'feel a little better', and 'might even block a droplet' — but would not provide good protection. Less than a month later, he was forced into an embarrassing climbdown after it emerged the virus spread via droplets in the air. Fauci later insisted he advised people not to wear masks to ensure there were enough available for hospitals and healthcare centers. Covid did not come from a lab Fauci has repeatedly insisted that Covid did not leak from a lab in China. He called the theory a 'shiny object that will go away,' and brushed aside claims from other top experts as an 'opinion.' Fauci has now backpedaled, saying instead he keeps an 'open mind' although insisting it remains 'most likely' that the virus spilled over from animals to humans. Two shots will stop you catching Covid When the Covid vaccine roll-out was in full swing, Fauci said the immunity from shots made doubly-vaccinated people a 'dead end' for the virus, and even suggested they may no longer need to wear masks. Schools shutdown Schools were closed from March through to August 2020, something Fauci later expressed regret about. He has since admitted he 'should have realized' there would be 'deleterious collateral consequences'.
