Donald Trump's travel ban doesn't cover the countries the 9/11 attackers came from

Donald Trump has placed a three-month ban on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the US.

Trump says this is to “protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals admitted to the United States”.

But not a single American has been killed on US soil by citizens of any of the Muslim-majority countries affected by Trump's order between 1975 and 2015, according to the conservative-leaning Cato Institute.

Many have pointed out that while he has added predominantly war-torn countries to his banned list, Trump has failed to include Saudi Arabia and Egypt in his ban.

Perhaps it has escaped Trump’s memory that most of those who hijacked aircraft and attacked New York and Washington DC in 9/11 were Saudis.

Aryeh Neier writes in the Guardian:

Does Trump shy away from offending Saudi Arabia because he has business dealings with wealthy Saudis? Or because he expects them to curry favor by patronizing his new hotel in Washington? We don’t know. By refusing to release his tax returns and by refusing to divest himself of his businesses, he raises such questions.

And the leader of the 9/11 attacks, Mohammed Atta, was an Egyptian.

Neier writes:

Was Egypt omitted because Trump is developing a warm relationship with the country’s brutal dictator, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi? Again, we don’t know.

Along with the United Arab Emirates, which also escaped Trump’s banned list,  these three countries accounted for 18 of the 19 terrorists responsible for 9/11.

An article in the New York Times points out that Trump hasn’t banned people from the Muslim-majority countries where he has done business.

His latest financial disclosure revealed he had two companies registered in Egypt, several Trump corporations in Saudi Arabia, and a luxury residential development and spa and golf course in the United Arab Emirates.

#DrainTheSwap, indeed.

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