Confusion !

It must be remembered that President Donald Trump is primarily a showman business entrepreneur and a public relations guru.  He put those skills together when he set out to create the image that swept him into office in his part time job of heading up the American nation for a four year spell.

Hix executive order suspends admission to the US of all refugees for 120 days and barred for 90 days the entry of any citizen from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia has thrown the world into confusion, but given great satisfaction to the red neck voters who delivered him the presidency.

Already, the ban has been softened by a Federal judge who issued an emergency stay that temporarily blocks the government from sending back out of the country people who have landed at US airports with valid entry visas.

At this stage the executive order lacks clarity and it seems to apply equally to  US legal residents from the named countries who hold valid green cards allowing them to work in the United States. Those out of the country as the time this executive order came into force may not be able to return.

This is a very selective ban and it does not apply to many Muslim majority nations, some of which have strong links to the Islamic State insurgency  in Syria and Iraq.   Critics will suggest that these seem carefully selected to protect Trump business interests in those countries.

Australia is relieved to learn that the plan to settle those refugees housed on Nauru and Manus island negotiated with the Obama presidency in an exchange gesture for refugees in the United States being accepted into Australia still stands.   On the other hand, a Labor Senator with an Iranian background may not be able to gain entry into the US even if he is travelling there on parliamentary business.

The ban is a devastating blow to the world airline industry.  Airlines risk the danger of being stuck with the costs if passengers are refused entry once they reach an American airport and passport checks are now rigorously delving into entry stamps for those named countries subjected to the ban. This lack of clarity has many officials convinced that mere travel to a banned nation would be sufficient for entry to be denied.

There has been a strong reaction to the ban in the United States.  Big crowds have congregated at airports to protest that ordinary family refugees are being tarred with the terrorist brush and that the embargo on refugees contradicts the mantra that the US is a nation that traditionally throws open its doors to the world.   The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are testimonials that it was the melting pot of world migration that created the United States.

It is probably inevitable that once these time strictures expire a more relaxed regime will be put in place and entry restrictions will aim on a more targetted basis.   President Trump has probably done his image more good than harm by this extreme measure.  More of the voters who put him into office will approve of the measure, and the people who find him repulsive are unlikely to change their opinion, nomatter what he does.    This move is simply shoring up support for a second term in four years time.

Donald Trump made his fortune by the same methods that great circuses wowed the people a century ago.   He provides an entertaining spectacle for the masses and that means he must deliver the unexpected.   What is uncertain is if he can manage that consistently over this next four year period without bringing the economy to a disaster.  It also means that whoever gains the Presidency after  the Trump years will find it a hard act to follow !