Trump's tweets have already come back to haunt him in court
Never Tweet: The 2017 American dystopia edition.
President Donald Trump's inability to keep his Twitter fingers in his pockets just helped derail his attempt to enact a ban on travel to the United States from six predominantly Muslim countries.
The Ninth Circuit ruled against the implementation of the ban on Monday, citing a Trump tweet from last Monday, June 5.
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Here's the Trump tweet:
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Trump's argument, as you probably know, is that a ban on travel from citizens of Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia will keep radicals outside the U.S. But the court — using Trump's tweet to back up its argument — says the focus on "countries" makes no sense. Banning citizens from those countries also blocks anyone from Syria who long ago moved to the United Kingdom, but doesn't block someone from the United Kingdom who recently became radicalized in Syria.
It might seem silly of the Ninth Circuit to cite a tweet in its decision, were it not for this press briefing statement from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
"They're considered official statements of the president of the United States," Spicer said of the president's tweets.
And, like all official statements, hasty ones can come back to haunt you.
Colin is Mashable's US & World Reporter. He previously interned at Foreign Policy magazine and The American Prospect. Colin is a graduate from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. When he's not at Mashable, you can most likely find him eating or playing some kind of sport.
