Sohn: Trump's Muslim ban more than bad 'implementation'

If people were not already afraid for America over Donald Trump's presidency, then his second weekend in office certainly should change that.

With stunningly little consultation and flagrant disregard for even a remote understanding of basic governing, the White House barged ahead on a Trump campaign promise to ban immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries.

There were other controversial executive actions taken during Trump's first full week in office that clearly received little or no legal review - some he and his minions walked back, like removing climate change from the White House web page and imposing a federal hiring freeze that would cripple, for instance, the Veterans Administration. But it was his order barring refugees that had the most explosive and, likely, unconstitutional implications.

In the name of "security," the order banned immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries (but not other neighboring Muslim countries where Trump has business ties - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt). With this action, Trump handed ISIS fresh recruiting material and set in motion chaos at airports, customs checkpoints and border control offices. Vetted refugees were stopped at the airports, as were people with legal green cards. A thoroughly vetted immigrant who served as an American interpreter for our troops in the Middle East was stopped and detained.

Now for the second weekend, protests sprung up all over the nation. Even Republicans seemed to have whiplash from the president's theatrics-turned-policy.

"We need to be careful as we do this," warned Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "We don't have religious tests in this country."

But that wasn't all of Trump's damage. Our new president's sophomoric and over-reaching new orders also risk escalating a diplomatic crisis with our country's closest southern neighbor, Mexico.

GOP officials, disgusted that their hoped-for collaborative new relationship between the White House and Congress is being ignored by the president, complained that Trump is brushing aside their advice, failing to fully engage on tax reform and Obamacare, and bypassing Congress with executive actions - something they frequently complained about under that "over-reaching" and "imperial" President Obama.

Meanwhile Trump's bull-in-the-china-shop moves continue to blindside Republicans and direct public focus toward topics the GOP would rather avoid - like how to pay for that unnecessary border wall with Mexico, like warming ties with Russia, like investigating false claims about voter fraud.

A federal judge over the weekend blocked the deportation of people stranded in U.S. airports under the executive action. The Trump administration stood by the new rule, but legal experts say the order seems headed to a constitutional showdown because religion is the clear litmus test: The ban allows the exemption of those of minority religions in the seven countries, and Trump officials have said those exemptions were carved out for Christians.

Inside the State Department, officials are circulating a dissent cable which warns that closing the nation's doors to weed out a handful of would-be terrorists will not make the nation safer and might instead deepen the threat.

"We do not need to alienate entire societies to stay safe," the memo concludes.

The memo should have gone further. Because it doesn't, bipartisan Congress members need to speak up. And some, but not enough, have.

"It's unacceptable," said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., criticized the "hasty" implementation of the policy.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., did not criticize Trump's choice to crack down on immigration, but instead said his orders were "poorly implemented."

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said "This vetting proposal itself needed more vetting." He continued: "More scrutiny of those traveling from war-torn countries to the United States is wise. But this broad and confusing order seems to ban legal, permanent residents with green cards, and might turn away Iraqis, for example, who were translators and helped save lives of American troops and who could be killed if they stay in Iraq."

Trump struck out against Graham and McCain, saying "... they are sadly weak on immigration."

That might be the least apt description of Graham and McCain we've ever heard. It is Trump who is sadly weak on immigration - and many other issues.