8 unhinged donald trump moments as he brings back his most hated policy

Donald Trump is back out there playing the hits - and here's a cut from his first album you all know and love. Previously known as the 'Muslim ban' - because of who it was

predominantly aimed at - Trump's first-term travel ban was struck down by so many courts that by the time it went into force it was basically pointless. There were protests at airports,

furious op-eds in the newspapers. It was a story that ran and ran - and was one of the main reasons for Trump's approval rating being so dramatically terrible so quickly into his first

term. Aside from the approval rating, which is garbage already, none of the above is likely to happen this time. In Trump 2.0, it barely even makes the front pages. But hey, here's a

look at the new travel ban - and all the other mad things he did in the last 24 hours that you need to know about 1. THE TRAVEL BAN IS BACK AND BIGGER THAN EVER You'll recall in 2017,

he announced a ban on travel to the United States from seven majority Muslim countries - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Well, he went on TV last night and announced a

travel ban on TWELVE countries. - Afghanistan - Myanmar - Chad - Congo-Brazzaville - Equatorial Guinea - Eritrea - Haiti - Iran - Libya - Somalia - Sudan - Yemen Of those, seven -

Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Chad - are majority Muslim. The others are not, though Eritrea is about 50/50. 2. 'WE DON'T WANT 'EM' In his TV

address, he made a reference to the recent Boulder attack - in which an Egyptian national who had overstayed his visa turned a home-made flame thrower on a group of Jewish people holding a

vigil for hostages held by Hamas. He said the attack "underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as

those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas. We don't want 'em." Curiously, Egypt is not on the list of restricted countries. 3. HE CLAIMED THE FIRST

BAN HAD PREVENTED TERROR ATTACKS. IT DIDN'T He went on to claim his first term Muslim ban was "a key part of preventing foreign terror attacks on American soil." The

University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database lists two major incidents tied to Islamist militants that caused deaths during Trump's first term. In December 2017, ISIS claimed

responsibility after a man drove a Home Depot truck onto a bike path in New York to run over pedestrians and cyclists. Eight died and 13 were injured. And in 2019, a member of the Saudi Air

Force, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, opened fire on a Naval Base in Pensacola Florida. Four people including the assailant were killed in the attack. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed

responsibility. Another attack, in December 2017, saw a suicide bomber detonate a pipe bomb at the Port Authority bus terminal in New York. Nobody died, but the assailant and three others

were injured. The perpetrator said he'd done it for the Islamic State. 4. HE HAD A POP AT EUROPE FOR SOME REASON Trump said in his address: "We will not let what happened in Europe

happen in America." It was entirely unclear what he meant by this. It wasn't explained in the address, and wasn't clarified in the executive order. But the implication was

that for some reason, Europe is bad and America doesn't want to be like it. 5. HE SPOKE TO PUTIN AND IT WAS, LIKE, TOTALLY GREAT On Wednesday afternoon Trump had a 75 minute phone call

with Vladimir Putin. In the closest we have to a readout of the call - Trump's Truth Social post - it seems like the President found the Russian dictator utterly charming. It was a

"good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace," the President wrote, prompting some to wonder whether they actually spent an hour and a quarter

discussing this week's episode of Taskmaster or something. Elsewhere, Trump noted Putin had told him he would "have to respond" to Ukraine making a mess of his planes in a

drone strike the other day "very strongly". There's no suggestion in the post that Trump tried to talk him out of it. In fact, he seemed utterly sympathetic to that silver

tongued divvil Putin - as he often is with the person he most recently spoke to on any given subject. I suspect this will have prompted a rush from European leaders to try and be the new

person he most recently spoke to about Ukraine. 6. OH AND HE TALKED TO XI JINPING TOO All the dictators are on call waiting for Trump, it seems. President Xi Jinping had a chat with him this

afternoon, presumably to talk over the ongoing trade war. This one seemed to go less well. "I like President XI of China," Trump wrote. "Always have, and always will, but he

is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!" Trade negotiations between the United States and China stalled shortly after a May 12 agreement between both countries to

reduce their tariff rates in order to have talks. Behind the gridlock has been the continued competition for an economic edge. GET DONALD TRUMP UPDATES STRAIGHT TO YOUR WHATSAPP! As tension

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screen and choose Exit group. If you’re curious, you can read our PRIVACY NOTICE. CLICK HERE TO JOIN 7. THE WAR WITH HARVARD CONTINUES Just like the director of Good Will Hunting, Donald

Trump has decided that what his audience really wants to see is a working class hero having a scrap with a posh university in Boston. (Trump is Matt Damon in this analogy, in case you were

confused). Now he's moving to block nearly all foreign students from entering the country to attend Harvard University, his latest attempt to choke the Ivy League school from an

international pipeline that accounts for a quarter of the student body. In an executive order signed Wednesday, Trump declared that it would jeopardise national security to allow Harvard to

continue hosting foreign students on its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It’s a further escalation in the White House’s fight with the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university. A

federal court in Boston blocked the Department of Homeland Security from barring international students at Harvard last week. Trump’s order invokes a different legal authority. In a

statement Wednesday night, Harvard said it will “continue to protect its international students.” “This is yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the Administration in violation of

Harvard’s First Amendment rights,” university officials said. How d'you like them apples? 8. OH, AND HE JUST APPOINTED A 22-YEAR-OLD FORMER GARDENER TO HEAD UP EXTREMISM PREVENTION

Trump has reportedly appointed a 22-year-old to tackle US extremism. Tomas Fugate's last job, according to Propublica, was pulling up weeds as a neighbourhood gardener. But just 12

months after graduating from the University of Texas at San Antonio, he's heading up the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security. He has

no apparent experience in the field of counterextremism In 2020, according to his LinkedIn, he was a Landscape Business Owner, and described his job thus: "Performed lawn-care work

around my neighbourhood, for a price that depended on the square footage of the yard. My duties consisted of mowing the yard, weed-whacking the weeds, edging round the yard, then the cleanup

of debris." With a resume like that, he'll be in the cabinet by the end of the month.