White House aides who wrote Trump’s travel ban see it as just the start

Even as confusion, internal dissent and widespread condemnation greeted President Donald Trump’s travel ban and crackdown on refugees this weekend, senior White House aides say they are only getting started.

Trump and his aides justified Friday’s executive order, which blocked travel from seven majority-Muslim countries for 90 days and halted refugees from around the world for 120, on security grounds — an issue that they say they take seriously. But their ultimate goal is far broader.

Trump’s top advisers on immigration, including chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior adviser Stephen Miller, see themselves as launching a radical experiment to fundamentally transform how the US decides who is allowed into the country and to block a generation of people who, in their view, won’t assimilate into American society.

That project may live or die in the next three months, as the Trump administration reviews whether and how to expand the visa ban and alter vetting procedures. White House aides are considering new, onerous security checks that could effectively limit travel into the US by people from majority-Muslim countries to a trickle.

Watch: Trump’s travel ban sparks outrage across the United States

The administration faced down another torrent of criticism Monday — from fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill, career diplomats, national security experts and world leaders — over the hasty rollout of the order, as well as the message it sent to both friends and adversaries in the war on terrorism. Though Trump’s ban does not affect all Muslims, as he promised during the campaign, many see it as religiously targeted.