President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would fight "to the Supreme Court" a new judicial ruling blocking his revised immigration and travel ban _ and then, adding confusion, suggested he might proceed in the courts with the more stringent ban he first signed.
Trump's remarks before a raucous crowd of supporters in Nashville, Tenn., came little more than an hour after a federal judge in Hawaii put on hold the second ban, which was scheduled to take effect just after midnight Thursday.
Judges in several states had been asked to block Trump's executive order, which was aimed at people from six countries which are predominantly Muslim.
Officials in Hawaii had argued that residents there would be harmed by separation from their families and the effect of the ban on recruitment of workers and the important tourism industry.
The first order, which went into effect one week into Trump's presidency, caused international confusion and prompted protests at airports across the United States.
"A judge has just blocked our executive order on travel and refugees coming into our country from certain countries," Trump told the crowd, which reacted with boos. "The order he blocked was a watered-down version of the first order that was also blocked by another judge and should have never been blocked to start with."
Trump said both actions represented "an unprecedented judicial overreach" that threatened "the safety of our nation." He read his audience the legal statute giving a president the power to curb the detrimental "entry of any aliens or any class of aliens."
"You don't think this was done by a judge for political reasons do you, no?" he asked his supporters, a wry look on his face. "This ruling makes us look weak, which by the way we no longer are, believe me ... . We're going to fight this terrible ruling. We're going to take our case as far as it needs to go, including all the way up to the Supreme Court."
As Trump noted, the second ban was tailored to get around the judicial criticisms of the first measure, which was to be rescinded when the second one went into effect.
More openly then he has before, the president on Wednesday indicated his displeasure at having to concoct the new version at all.
"I wasn't thrilled, but the lawyers all said, 'Let's tailor it,'" Trump said, adding, "I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place."
