President tells crowd of law enforcement officials that executive order couldn’t ‘be written any plainer or better’, before vowing to reduce violence in Chicago

Donald Trump has lashed out at the appeals court weighing his travel ban, telling an audience of police chiefs and sheriffs that some of the deliberations he had heard were “disgraceful”.

The president insisted that his order banning travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations, which is currently blocked, was “done for the security of our nation” and should be respected.

What you need to know about the travel ban hearing – and what happens next Read more

The ninth US circuit court of appeals is examining the Department of Justice’s appeal for a stay on the temporary restraining order placed on the travel ban by a district court judge last week. In a hearing on Tuesday, a government lawyer faced tough questions over Trump’s campaign promise to close US borders to Muslims.



“It’s really incredible to me that we have a court case that’s going on so long,” Trump told a conference of law enforcement officials in Washington on Wednesday. “They’re interpreting things differently than probably 100% of the people in this room.”

He quoted from the portion of the immigration law that he said gave him the power to enact the ban, calling it “beautifully written” and saying even “a bad high school student would understand this”.



The “only mistake” was that the order should have referred to the president as “he or she”, he said, “but hopefully it won’t be for at least another seven years”.

The president said he followed the proceedings on television, which broadcast a live audio stream of the hearing. “I watched last night in amazement and I heard things that I couldn’t believe, things that really had nothing to do with what I just read.



“I don’t ever want to call a court biased, so I won’t call it biased, and we haven’t had a decision yet, but courts seem to be so political and it would be so great for our justice system if they would be able to read a statement and do what’s right, and that has to do with the security of our country, which is so important.”



The court is made up of three judges: one appointed by former Democratic president Jimmy Carter, one by Republican George W Bush and one by Democrat Barack Obama.

Trump, a Republican, continued: “I was a good student, I understand things, I comprehend very well, OK? Better than, I think, almost anybody. And I want to tell you that I listened to a bunch of stuff last night on television that was disgraceful, it was disgraceful, because what I just read to you is what we have and it just can’t be written any plainer or better.”

The president’s executive order barred all visitors from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days, and suspended Syrian refugees’ entry indefinitely and all other refugees’ entry for 120 days. It sparked protests and airport chaos across the country, before a temporary restraining order was issued against it by a federal judge, James Robart, on Friday.

Trump had also been critical of Robart, referring to him as a “so-called judge”.

The ninth circuit is expected to rule quickly on the motion for the stay. If they grant the stay, the executive order would go back into effect while the suit against the federal government brought by the state of Washington continues in district court. If the court declines to grant the stay, the federal government can file an emergency motion with the supreme court.

Amicus briefs against Trump's travel ban: the strongest arguments Read more

Meanwhile, the original case between Washington state and the federal government will continue in district court, where Robart is moving ahead with asking for briefs on a preliminary injunction against the executive order.

Hundreds of members of the Major Cities Chiefs Association and Major County Sheriffs’ Association were in Trump’s standing room crowd on Wednesday, some in uniform. Trump told them: “You have a true, true friend in the White House. I stand with you.”

He repeated his promises to reduce violence in Chicago, where he said more than 4,000 people were shot last year (the exact figure is 3,550), and argued that “no one in America should be punished” because of their birthplace. “What is going on in Chicago?” he asked, pledging to provide resources to police departments and promising “zero tolerance” for violence against law enforcement.



Trump also pledged to work on combating drug abuse and said there should be resources to deal with a “mental health crisis”. This drew louder applause than his comments about the immigration ban case. Trump reiterated his vow to build a wall on the Mexican border, insisting: “I don’t kid.”

The president still found time on Wednesday to take aim at another target: department store Nordstrom. He complained about its decision to stop selling his daughter Ivanka’s clothing and accessory line.

Trump tweeted: “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!” The post was retweeted more than 6,000 times in less than an hour.

Nordstrom had said last week that it made the move based on the brand’s performance, and that each year it replenishes about 10% of its supply with new products. The department store chain’s shares dropped after the tweet but later bounced back.

Trump, who has been much criticised for mixing business with politics, sent the tweet at 10.51am. According to a White House press release, he received his daily intelligence brief in the Oval Office at 10.30am.

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, characterised the tweet as a father standing up for his child. “For people to take out their concern about his actions or executive orders on members of his family, he has every right to stand up for his family and applaud their business activities, their success,” he said.

“I think there’s clearly a targeting of her brand … There’s clearly efforts to undermine that name based on her father’s positions on particular policies he’s taken. This is a direct attack on his policies and her name.”

On another hectic day, Trump hosted Intel’s chief executive, Brian Krzanich, who announced a $7bn investment in a factory in Arizona. Krzanich said the factory will make “the most advanced” microchips on the planet, hiring about 3,000 workers directly and 10,000 workers in Arizona in support of the factory.

Trump tweeted: “Thank you Brian Krzanich, CEO of @Intel. A great investment ($7 BILLION) in American INNOVATION and JOBS! #AmericaFirst”. The tweet was appended with an American flag.

The president’s long struggle to get a cabinet in place continued with Senator Jeff Sessions set to be confirmed as attorney general on Wednesday evening.

But the process was overshadowed when Senate Republicans voted to silence Democrat Elizabeth Warren for reading out a letter written 30 years ago by Martin Luther King Jr’s widow, Coretta Scott King, that criticised Sessions over his civil rights record.

The extraordinarily rare rebuke triggered a wave of support for Warren on social media under the hashtag #LetLizSpeak after she went outside the chamber and read the letter in a video posted online. Hillary Clinton, who lost the election to Trump, tweeted a link, turning Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell’s criticisms of Warren into a badge of pride: “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

Spicer declined to comment on the specific incident during Wednesday’s briefing. He said: “Unfortunately, as has become commonplace in the Senate, Democrats once again spent hours last night in a counterproductive discussion about one of President Trump’s clearly qualified nominees, not to mention one of their peers.”

Spicer said of Coretta Scott King’s letter: “I would respectfully disagree with her assessment of Senator Sessions then and now.” He said he was hopeful that if King were still alive and could get to know Sessions now, she would take a different view.



Additional reporting by Ben Jacobs and Julia Carrie Wong