The mainstream media in America is hammering US President Donald Trump for putting on hold immigration from seven Muslim majority countries for 90 days until the new administration figures out how to put more stringent vetting procedures for the immigrants (or aliens) in place. The media have mischievously termed it as ‘Muslim ban’. Trump clarified that this is not a ‘Muslim ban’ and the ‘media is falsely reporting.’ He is right. The executive order signed by Trump doesn’t use the word ‘ban’ even once.

What the order does is block entry of immigrants (and non-immigrants) -- excluding certain visa holders like diplomats -- from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia for 90 days until proper review of the current screening process of foreign nationals is done so as to prevent infiltration by foreign terrorists or criminals. It also puts a stop to US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 120 days until additional procedures are taken “to ensure that those approved for refugee admission do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of the United States.”

This seems quite sensible to someone who isn’t boxed into ideological extremes or not a rabid Trump hater. Any country has the right to admit people it wants to admit and not allow those who it thinks may posses threat to its people or national security. It is no one’s case that Trump’s order doesn’t have any flaws. A ban on immigrants from Iran, for instance, doesn’t make sense as the country is not facing war, strife, disaster, or civil unrest - conditions that were used to pick these seven nations. However, it is far cry from what the establishment media and elites are painting it as - a ban on Muslims. There are 40 other Muslim majority countries, whose residents can freely travel to the US, including the nation with largest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia.

Some responses to Trump’s order are baffling, including the self-defeating ‘Welcome Refugees’ policy by none other than the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who seems to be putting his country at great risk for cheap media grandstanding, Facebook likes and retweets. An Obama beget Trump in the US, it is anyone’s guess what dangerous political turn its northern neighbour would take.

Those who have not compared Trump’s policy to Hitler’s or Holocaust and have taken a milder tone also don’t seem to agree with the idea. Not only they think it would be ineffective, they believe it would in fact be counter-productive.

David Frum, a senior editor at The Atlantic and former speechwriter for Bush, has argued the same. He rightly points out that Trump’s order would not have prevented the Orlando nightclub shooter (the son of immigrants from Afghanistan), the San Bernardino shooters (first and second generation immigrants from Pakistan), the Fort Hood killer (son of Palestinian immigrants), the Tsarnaev brothers of the 2013 Boston marathon bombing fame (Kyrgyz nationality), and so on. But here is the thing: policies related to national security are based on threat perception, not just past incidents of terror. Of course, Frum knows such basics of policy-making having worked for a President. Threat perception to the US interests from people coming from Syria, parts of Iraq, Yemen would be many times more than Kyrgyzstan, Palestine or even Afghanistan. It is no brainer then that the former set of countries are included while the latter ones are not.

Frum also writes that “the new Trump position that all Muslims are potential terrorists is vastly worse” than Obama’s ridiculous position “that Islamic terrorism has nothing to do with Islam.” Clearly, Mr Frum is letting his personal prejudices come in the way of judging the order rationally. One gets the perception that he hasn’t even read the original order signed by Trump. If Trump’s position was that all Muslims are potential terrorists”, he would’ve banned Muslims from all over the world, not just from these seven countries. As pointed out earlier, this is not a Muslim ban but only halting of immigrants from certain countries until more exhaustive procedures for extensive vetting are in place.

Frum further alleges that “what Trump has done is to divide and alienate potential allies”. Actually, he hasn’t. He would’ve done so if he had banned Muslims based on past incidents of terrors which Frum and other commentators seems to suggest Trump should’ve done if he wanted to stop terror attacks. These countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan are America’s strongest allies in the violence prone region, not those seven countries.

Frum writes that Trump’s order has “alienated potential friends in the Islamic world.” What allies is Frum talking about? None of these countries are the allies of the US except the current government in Sunni Iraq led by a Shia. If Frum means the local groups and people in these countries that often help the US agencies with support in exchange for immigration to America, he shouldn’t worry. The order empowers the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security on a case-by-case basis, and when in the national interest, to “issue visas or other immigration benefits to nationals of countries for which visas and benefits are otherwise blocked.” Clearly, Frum hasn’t read the original order otherwise he wouldn’t have made such a sweeping and false statement.

It’s not that Frum has got it all wrong. He makes good points too. He is right when he says that immigration laws are now outdated and times have changed since the World War II when these rules were put in place and the US indeed needs “new paradigm for a new time.” He is also right on to lay the blame for Trump’s audacity to issue such an order on “the dreamy liberal refusal to recognize the reality of nationhood, the meaning of citizenship, and the differences between cultures".

Conservatives like Frum have got the diagnosis right but prescription wrong. Liberals on the other hand have not even able to get the first part right. But both suffer from Trump-phobia and and let their biases blur the distinction between what’s Trump is all about what they perceive him to be. Many have even forgot the basic rule of journalism: read the original document if you are going to write about it.

For now, they seem to be in totally dark about who Trump really is or even how he won. This is perhaps Trump’s greatest strength and the media detached from reality his greatest ally.