DHS Secretary John Kelly reportedly refused to comply with Stephen Bannon's plan for green card holders


After President Trump issued his executive order suspending all U.S. entrance from seven majority-Muslim nations, Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly resolved some of the ensuing confusion by ordering "the entry of lawful permanent residents to be in the national interest," which means that green card holders from the seven countries would be given a waiver and admitted absent "significant derogatory information indicating a serious threat to public safety and welfare."
On Saturday, a Washington Post article chronicling the Trump administration's internal machinations over the executive order — which is currently under temporary suspension thanks to the ruling of a federal judge in Seattle — shared a report suggesting Kelly's green card waiver came in defiance of a demand from Trump consigliere Stephen Bannon:
White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon wanted to stop Kelly in his tracks. Bannon paid a personal and unscheduled visit to Kelly's Department of Homeland Security office to deliver an order: Don't issue the waiver. Kelly, according to two administration officials familiar with the confrontation, refused to comply with Bannon's instruction. That was the beginning of a weekend of negotiations among senior Trump administration staffers that led, on Sunday, to a decision by Trump to temporarily freeze the issuance of executive orders. [The Washington Post]
For additional insight into Bannon and his role in the Trump White House, see this analysis from The Week's Damon Linker. Read the rest of the Post piece here.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliable
speed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages