It's only 1 week into Donald Trump's presidency, and the man 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 carrying out a "heckuva job" with recovery efforts.
That comment was hung throughout the president's neck to be an anvil, as flood waters swamped aspects of New Orleans along with the city descended into chaos. It started a public approval unpredictable manner that triggered sweeping Democratic victories within the 2006 mid-term elections. History will judge the long-term impact of Mr Trump's Friday afternoon immigration order, but his early praise for the implementation will never easily be forgotten.
"It's exercising very nicely," Mr Trump said in a very brief a reaction to a question on Saturday afternoon. "You see it inside the airports, you find it all over. It's training very nicely, so we are going to have an extremely, very strict ban, therefore we are going to have extreme vetting, which we ought to have had in this particular country for countless years."
On the bottom 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 close from entry in the US - and what to do with them whenever they were held. And as the day progressed, and word spread with the detentions, crowds of protesters at international terminals grew from dozens to hundreds to thousands.
While about the campaign trail, it absolutely was 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 already established to fill from the details - and yes it seems they faced some difficulty translating his pre-election rhetoric into policy.
Mr Trump's Friday afternoon executive order reportedly was crafted without talking to legal aides and enacted on the objection of homeland security officials, who balked at including permanent US residents inside ban. This designed for an awkward scene Saturday night with a New York courthouse, where government attorneys were required to defend measures that had been creating chaos at airports nationally.
"I think the federal government hasn't stood a full possibility to think about this," said federal judge Ann Donnelly, as she ruled that men and women with valid paperwork on US soil couldn't be deported.
Her temporary ruling - and the ones like it in other courts - are just the opening salvo using what will likely be a protracted legal battle. Trump administration lawyers will really be better prepared later on hearings. The orders could possibly be re-instated following full trials within the merits, with no judge has yet to rule for the fate of folks who hold valid US visas and still on foreign soil. In the meantime, however, it's proven to be a very embarrassing episode of what looks like a not-ready-for-primetime White House.
A couple of Republicans in Congress attended out with varying degrees of objection on the programme, and although Republican leadership is playing along at the moment, that can change quickly when the political heat increases. The president could have broad powers in setting immigration policy, but Congress can pass legislation that overrules him any time. Meanwhile, Democrats are scrambling to adopt advantage from the political opportunity. "History will judge where America's leaders stood today," Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois said. It was an alert some of his party's 2020 presidential contenders seemed to adopt 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 with the Democratic presidential field.
2020 is usually a long way off, needless to say. Of more pressing issue is where the Trump administration goes from this point. On Sunday morning, press secretary Sean Spicer, chief of staff Reince Preibus and top aide Kellyanne Conway took towards 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 for the "failing" New York Times for your second day in the row. "Our country needs strong borders and extreme vetting, NOW," he tweeted. "Look precisely what is happening around Europe and, indeed, the entire world - a terrible mess!"
Out of media player. Press enter to send back or tab to carry on. While championing US security can be quite a winning issue, protracted detention of children plus the elderly at airport checkpoints is "bad optics", reported by users. Watching a five-year-old re-united along with his mother and 70-year-olds facing indefinite detention puts an individual face on Mr Trump's immigration programme - and also the results aren't flattering for your White House.
During the presidential primary, most Republican voters backed Mr Trump's necessitates a sweeping ban on Muslims entering the US, therefore the president's core support may hold firm next weekend's events. The views from the American heartland, far taken from major airfields, sometimes differ greatly from your liberal bastions for the coast. At best, however, it is really an unnecessary distraction for that White House, calling its organisational ability into question. At worst - should the majority with the nation turns about the president - Mr Trump might find his power and influence commencing to ebb before his administration even gets fully under way.
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