Last Saturday, the newly appointed President of the United States, Donald Trump, sent shockwaves around the world when he banned more than 218 million people and all refugees the ability to enter American soil. The executive order signed by Trump bans citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for at least the next 90 days and suspends the admission of any and all refugees for the next 120. As a result of Trump's order, labelled by many as the immigration ban or Muslim ban, millions of people worldwide have taken to streets and airports to protest the highly criticized move.
Now it seems that after less than two weeks since leaving the White House, Trump's predecessor Barack Obama has been pushed back on to the political fray, as he lends his opinion on Trump's immigration ban.
Obama supports protests against Trump immigration ban
A spokesman for Obama claimed that the former President "fundamentally disagrees" with Trump's newly signed executive order as he believes it discriminates against "individuals because of their faith or religion". In Obama's first statement since leaving office on January 20 following Trump's inauguration, Obama's spokesman added that he supported the protests taking place against Trump's newly implemented immigration policy. Stating that "citizens exercising their constitutional rights" to protest was exactly what he expected to see when "American values are at stake".
To add to what has already been a dramatic few days during the infant stages of the Trump campaign, acting attorney general Sally Yates was fired from her role earlier this week after she ordered the Justice Department not to defend Trump's controversial ban. Yates, an Obama holdover, wrote a letter to the Justice Department's lawyers stating that she was "not convinced" that the order was responsible or even "lawful".
Trump stated that Yates had "betrayed" the Justice Department with her letter. Trump has now named the 31-year Justice Department veteran, Dana J. Boente as the acting attorney general until Jeff Sessions passes a Senate vote to take over the role on a permanent basis.
