European Union slams Trump's travel ban 'taken unilaterally and without consultation'


The European Union's governing body isn't happy with President Trump's new travel ban.
The European Commission in a statement on Thursday condemned Trump's decision to restrict travel from Europe to the United States for 30 days due to the global coronavirus pandemic.
"The coronavirus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action," the European Commission said in a statement, per The New York Times.
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The European Union, the statement goes on to say, "disapproves of the fact that the U.S. decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation."
Trump announced the ban, which exempts the United Kingdom and only applies to foreign nationals, in an Oval Office speech, and it will go into effect Friday at midnight. But European officials "were scrambling to play catch-up Thursday to understand the reasoning behind the ban," The Washington Post reports, also writing that details about it "confounded many European leaders and policymakers, underscoring the view that the decision was largely political."
It wasn't just European officials who were confused, but also Trump's own former Homeland Security adviser, Tom Bossert, who tweeted Thursday that there's "little value to European travel restrictions" because "we have nearly as much disease here in the U.S. as the countries in Europe."
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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