Donald Trump is back out there playing the hits and heres 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 Trumps firstterm 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 opeds in the newspapers It was a story that ran and ran and was one of the main reasons for Trumps 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 20 it barely even makes the front pages But hey heres 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 Youll 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 CongoBrazzaville Equatorial Guinea Of those seven Afghanistan Iran Libya Somalia Sudan Yemen and Chad are majority Muslim The others are not though Eritrea is about 5050 2 We dont 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 homemade 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 dont want em Curiously Egypt is not on the list of restricted countries 3 He claimed the first ban had prevented terror attacks It didnt 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 Marylands Global Terrorism Database lists two major incidents tied to Islamist militants that caused deaths during Trumps 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 AlQaida 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 hed 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 wasnt explained in the address and wasnt clarified in the executive order But the implication was that for some reason Europe is bad and America doesnt 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 Trumps 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 weeks 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 Theres 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 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 hes 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 Its a further escalation in the White Houses fight with the nations oldest and wealthiest university A federal court in Boston blocked the Department of Homeland Security from barring international students at Harvard last week Trumps 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 Harvards First Amendment rights university officials said How dyou like them apples 8 Oh and he just appointed a 22yearold former gardener to head up extremism prevention Trump has reportedly appointed a 22yearold to tackle US extremism Tomas Fugates 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 hes 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 lawncare work around my neighbourhood for a price that depended on the square footage of the yard My duties consisted of mowing the yard weedwhacking the weeds edging round the yard then the cleanup of debris With a resume like that hell be in the cabinet by the end of the month