Trump says new travel-ban order coming next week

After a series of legal setbacks, Donald Trump said Thursday that his administration is preparing to roll out a revised version of his controversial travel ban next week.

Mr Trump said in a press conference that the new order would be issued “next week sometime,” and would be tailored to address legal concerns raised in court rulings on the ban, including one several weeks ago by a federal judge in Washington who temporarily halted the order’s implementation. The White House’s bid to overturn that ruling was rejected by a federal appeals court last week in a separate ruling.

On Thursday, Mr Trump defended the ban, saying its roll-out was “very smooth” notwithstanding the “bad court” and “bad decision.”

He added, without elaborating on the details, that the new order “is going to be very much tailored to what I consider to be a very bad decision.”

Mr Trump’s Justice Department said in a court filing with the appeals court on Thursday that it would move forward with a new order rather than dragging out the legal fight, for now.

“Rather than continuing this litigation, the president intends in the near future to rescind the order and replace it with a new, substantially revised executive order to eliminate what the panel thought were constitutional concerns,” the filing said.

“In so doing, the President will clear the way for immediately protecting the country rather than pursuing further, potentially time-consuming litigation. Under the unusual circumstances presented here…the government respectfully submits that the most appropriate course would be for the court to hold its consideration of the case until the president issues the new order and then vacate the panel’s preliminary decision.”