Donald Trump has said he is considering signing a “brand-new” executive order on immigration, following the court ruling blocking his travel ban on Thursday.
The US president said he was confident he would win the court battle over the hugely controversial executive order suspending the country’s refugee programme and barring citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, which is currently blocked.
But he said the White House was also considering “a lot of other options, including just filing a brand new order”. Asked if he meant a new executive order, he said: “It very well could be. We need speed for reasons of security, so it very well could be.”
Speaking onboard Air Force One on his was to Florida for the weekend, Trump said he could sign a fresh executive order as soon as Monday or Tuesday. Asked what revisions the new order would include, he said: “New security measures.”
He said a new order would probably change “very little” from the first, according to the Associated Press.
There was confusion over whether the administration intended to take the fight to the supreme court, following his setback in a San Francisco federal court on Thursday.
Despite the president claiming he would “win that [legal] battle” over the travel ban, a White House official told Reuters the president had decided not to go to the supreme court.
“The temporary restraining order, we would not take to the supreme court, but we are reviewing all options in the court system,” the official was quoted as saying.
Minutes later the Washington Post quoted White House chief of staff Reince Priebus as saying the administration was “reviewing all of our options in the court system” – including the supreme court.
The ruling by the ninth US circuit court of appeals in San Francisco on Thursday applies only to the question of whether district judge James Robart in Seattle was correct in issuing a temporary restraining order against the travel ban. Trump could choose to sidestep this fight and concentrate on the legal proceedings over whether the travel ban is constitutional, which will continue in Robart’s court over the next weeks.
Separately, an unidentified judge on the ninth circuit on Friday requested that the court consider reconsidering the travel ban case “en banc” – or by a full panel of 11 judges. The court’s 25 judges will vote on the issue after both sides file briefs, which are due on 16 February.
Earlier, Trump had said he would make a fresh policy announcement next week in response to the ruling, but he gave few details about his next move in a tussle with the judiciary that has stymied one of his first and most controversial measures.
“We’ll be doing something very rapidly having to do with additional security for our country,” Trump told a joint press conference with the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe. “You’ll see something next week.”
Trump suffered a major setback on Thursday when a US appeals court refused to reinstate the temporary travel ban. Trump responded swiftly on Twitter with a message in block capitals that said: “SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!”
Speaking at the White House, the president insisted: “We are going to keep our country safe, we are going to do whatever is necessary to keep our country safe. We had a decision which we think we are going to be very successful with, it shouldn’t take too much time ... Ultimately I have no doubt we’ll win that particular case.”
He added: “There are tremendous threats to our country. We will not allow that to happen. We will continue to do things to make our country safe. We will not allow people into our country who are looking to do harm to our people.”
Trump’s order barred people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days and barred all refugees for 120 days. Refugees from Syria were banned indefinitely. It triggered disarray at airports and widespread protests.
Trump’s defeated election opponent, Hillary Clinton, also responded to the court ruling, with a tweet that read: “3-0” – presumably a reference either to the three judges’ unanimous verdict or three consecutive rulings against the ban.
Democrats welcomed the verdict as a triumph for America’s democratic checks and balances. Joe Crowley, leader of the House Democratic caucus, said: “This is a major, major, major defeat for the administration. And I think there will be more, because they will continue to overstep.”
Addressing Trump’s angry tweet, Crowley said: “The president needs to grow up.”
The president seems likely to take the battle all the way to the supreme court but he is also fending off more than a dozen additional lawsuits now moving through the courts. Lawyers for the state of Virginia are mounting one of the challenges, arguing that the ban violates the constitution and results from “animus toward Muslims”.
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