It's one week into Donald Trump's presidency, and hubby already has his first "heckuva job" moment. For those that don't remember, a direct consequence of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, President George W Bush publicly praised his emergency management head, Michael Brown, for performing a "heckuva job" with recovery efforts.
That comment was hung round the president's neck as an anvil, as flood waters swamped aspects of New Orleans plus the city descended into chaos. It started a public approval volitile manner that generated sweeping Democratic victories inside the 2006 mid-term elections. History will judge the long-term impact of Mr Trump's Friday afternoon immigration order, but his early praise because of its implementation is not going to easily be forgotten.
"It's exercising very nicely," Mr Trump said inside a brief reply to a question on Saturday afternoon. "You see it inside airports, you visualize it all over. It's exercising very nicely, and now we are going to have an exceptionally, very strict ban, and that we are going to have extreme vetting, which we have to have had on this country for quite some time."
On the soil at major US airports, things weren't going quite so nicely, however. Immigration officials were developing a difficult time implementing Mr Trump's order after receiving conflicting instructions on who to dam from entry to the US - and what to do with them when they were held. And as the day progressed, and word spread on the detentions, crowds of protesters at international terminals grew from dozens to hundreds to thousands.
While for the campaign trail, it turned out easy for Mr Trump to roundly decry the US immigration system as broken and create a general necessitate bans and moratoriums. As president, however, his team has experienced to fill inside the details - also it seems they faced some difficulty translating his pre-election rhetoric into policy.
Mr Trump's Friday afternoon executive order reportedly was crafted without conferring with legal aides and enacted in the objection of homeland security officials, who balked at including permanent US residents inside ban. This created for an awkward scene Saturday night at the New York courthouse, where government attorneys was required to defend measures which are creating chaos at airports nationwide.
"I think the us govenment hasn't experienced a full possiblity to think about this," said federal judge Ann Donnelly, as she ruled that people with valid paperwork on US soil couldn't be deported.
Her temporary ruling - and the ones like it in other courts - are merely the opening salvo with what will likely be a protracted legal battle. Trump administration lawyers will really be better prepared in the future hearings. The orders may very well be re-instated following full trials about the merits, with out judge has yet to rule about the fate of folks who hold valid US visas and still on foreign soil. In the meantime, however, it's proven to be an uncomfortable episode of what looks like a not-ready-for-primetime White House.
A few Republicans in Congress attended out with varying numbers of objection on the programme, and although Republican leadership is playing along in the mean time, which could change quickly should the political heat increases. The president might have broad powers in setting immigration policy, but Congress can pass legislation that overrules him without notice. Meanwhile, Democrats are scrambling to adopt advantage with the political opportunity. "History will judge where America's leaders stood today," Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois said. It was a reminder some of his party's 2020 presidential contenders seemed to consider to heart. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered airport trains to resume want to JFK Airport, after transit officials had suspended intend to prevent protesters from continuing to flood in. Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke to crowds at Boston's Logan Airport, as did Senator Cory Booker at Dulles near Washington, DC. All three are viewed near the top in the Democratic presidential field.
2020 can be a long way off, obviously. Of more pressing dilemma is where the Trump administration goes from this level. On Sunday morning, press secretary Sean Spicer, chief of staff Reince Preibus and top aide Kellyanne Conway took on the airwaves to guard the White House policy and explain its implementation. Mr Trump himself fired back on Twitter - although only after first having a swipe in the "failing" New York Times to the second day within a row. "Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW," he tweeted. "Look what exactly is happening across Europe and, indeed, the earth - a terrible mess!"
Out of media player. Press enter another or tab to go on. While championing US security is commonly a winning issue, protracted detention of children as well as the elderly at airport checkpoints is "bad optics", as it were. Watching a five-year-old re-united regarding his mother and 70-year-olds facing indefinite detention puts an individual face on Mr Trump's immigration programme - as well as the results aren't flattering to the White House.
During the presidential primary, many Republican voters backed Mr Trump's necessitates a sweeping ban on Muslims entering the US, and so the president's core support may hold firm next weekend's events. The views inside the American heartland, far taken off major air-ports, sometimes differ greatly from your liberal bastions around the coast. At best, however, it is an unnecessary distraction for your White House, calling its organisational ability into question. At worst - in the event the majority with the nation turns within the president - Mr Trump will find his power and influence needs to ebb before his administration even gets fully under way.
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