Trump's new executive order proves his "secret plan" to defeat ISIS never existed

Unpopularly-elected and Russia-installed President Donald Trump has proven himself a liar repeatedly during his first week in office, and he is not taking the weekend off, either. In a stunning bit of self-exposure, Trump signed an order Saturday evening calling on military leaders to bring him a plan to defeat ISIS within 30 days of the order.

When signing the order, Trump called it a “plan” to defeat ISIS:

 This is the plan to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. In other words, ISIS. I think it’s going to be very successful.

What he was actually signing, though, was an order for military leaders to bring him a plan within 30 days of the order. From a pool report (via email from The White House, emphasis mine):

The White House provided a nearly hour long background briefing to reporters to review yesterday’s refugee/visa executive order and to preview three executive actions that may be announced later today. According to a senior administration official, the White House may release an executive action that outlines a reorganization of the National Security Council. The official said that another executive action would implement a five year lobbying ban on administration officials and a lifetime ban on administration officials lobbying for a foreign country. The official said a third executive action would call on military leaders to present a report to the president in 30 days that outlines a strategy for defeating ISIS.

Apparently, that order was less important to Trump than banning Muslims and billing American taxpayers for a border wall.

The pool report goes on to describe more terrible aspects of Trump’s Muslim ban:

In regards to Friday’s executive order, green card holders from one of the seven affected countries who are currently outside the United States will need a case by case waiver to return to the United States, according to the official. Those green card holders in the United States will have to meet with a consular officer before leaving the country, the official said. The official heaped praise on officials at the State Department and Department of Homeland Security who have been working on implementing Friday’s executive order. “This White House conveys its deepest appreciation to everyone involved in the implementation of this order, and that’s been formally conveyed to the managers of both State and Homeland Security,” the official said. The official said there had been conversations between administration officials and State and Homeland Security officials about the executive order for many weeks.

Trump’s cruel order is receiving blistering blowback from nearly every quarter, and in a possible indication that this White House is vulnerable to this kind of pressure, Trump spent his first weekly address boasting about all the other actions he took this week, yet made no mention of the one that he claims will keep us safe from terrorists.

Despite Trump’s many onerous and destructive actions in his first week, he does appear to have abandoned plans to order a “voter fraud” investigation and to rescind President Obama’s ban on torture. With pressure building against the Muslim ban, it might not be long before Trump is looking for a way out of this mess, too.

If only he felt the same urgency to defeat America’s real enemies, instead of people who call our country home.