PTI
Washington
US President Donald Trump today defended his controversial executive orders on immigration, borders and extreme vetting of refugees, saying that the world is a “horrible mess” and America needs “strong borders”.
“Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, now. Look what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world - a horrible mess!” Trump said in an early morning tweet.
In his first week in office as US President, Trump has signed several executive orders that immediately stops entry of refugees and temporarily ban issuing of visas to people from seven Muslim-majority countries and extreme vetting for others.
The executive orders has resulted in outrage among the opposition Democratic leaders, human rights bodies and a large section of the American tech-industry, including from Google's India-born CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Terming it a “painful” decision, Pichai said the move will affect at least 187 Google employees.
Indian-American Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella posted a note on LinkedIn, saying the company “will continue to advocate on this (immigration) important topic.” He said as an immigrant and the company's CEO he had “both experienced and seen the positive impact that immigration has on our company, for the country, and for the world.” “We share the concerns about the impact of the executive order on our employees from the listed countries, all of whom have been in the United States lawfully, and we're actively working with them to provide legal advice and assistance,” the company said in a statement.
Civil rights activists allege that this is in effect a “Muslim ban” and against the values of the United States.
Trump, however, argued that this is not a Muslim ban and that these steps have been taken to protect the country from radical Islamic terrorists.
Earlier yesterday, Trump said that the ban was working “very nicely” and should continue.“It's working out very nicely. You see it in the airports, you see it all over. It's working out very nicely,” he said.
“We are going to have a very, very strict ban and we are going to have extreme vetting, which we should have had in this country for many years,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, in another tweet, Trump attacked the press and slammed The New York Times for the second consecutive day. “Somebody with aptitude and conviction should buy the FAKE NEWS and failing @nytimes, either run it correctly or let it fold with dignity!” Trump said.
Trump makes the best use of Twitter (He has 22.7m followers) to express his views and communicate directly with his supporters.
