U.S. TRAVEL BAN

A Travel Ban the U.S. has seen before:

The central question to ask about President Trump's latest travel ban, which it issued on Sunday last, is :

''Will it make Americans safer?''

The answer is, as best as anyone can tell based on publicly available information is NO.

Starting Oct. 18. the U.S. will permanently bar entry to most citizens of seven countries : Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea. 

Certain citizens from Iraq and Venezuela will face restrictions and heightened scrutiny.

President trump justified these restrictions  -which target countries that either failed or refused to meet new vetting standards   -by saying he was acting ''to protect the security and interests of the United States and its people.''

Americans should be skeptical.

While it may appear more modulated, reasons The NYTimes, Sunday's proclamation is a direct descendant of a central plank of President Trump's campaign-

His call for a ''total and complete shutdown'' of Muslims entering the United States, which he made in 2015, and which remained on his campaign website as late as May.