Why was this Muslim ban put in place so quickly and with no exceptions for green card holders and people already en route or currently traveling abroad? If Vox’s reporting is to be believed, and I know of no reason not to, it’s primarily due to the views of senior political adviser Steve Bannon.

…for those who have followed Bannon’s career and statements over the years, this is no surprise at all. Bannon infamously bragged that his website Breitbart was “the platform” for the racist alt-right movement, and regularly featured lurid tales of crimes committed by immigrants. He’s said the US needs to “take a very, very, very aggressive stance against radical Islam.”

And once, he made clear that he is not particularly enthusiastic even about immigrants who are peaceful, successful, and economically productive.

[snip]

Bannon’s “statistic” that over two-thirds of Silicon Valley CEOs are Asian-born isn’t even close to being true, since only a small minority are. But the bigger takeaway is that Bannon was disturbed enough by this mistaken idea to bring it up. He was evidently trying to choose his words carefully, but he made it crystal clear that he was disturbed by the (fictional) idea of all these Asian-born CEOs running around in America.

It’s not enough we have Trump as President, we have a white supremacist as his closest adviser. If this was a Robert Ludlum book Consular Ops at the State Department would already be planning to take them both out.