President Donald Trump
Barack Obama, the former president, has issued his first statement since handing the presidency over to Donald Trump and warns that “American values” hang in the balance.
Responding to Mr Trump’s executive orders on immigration, Kevin Lewis, a spokesman for Mr Obama, said the former president “fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion”.
He supported protests against the executive orders signed by the president on Friday evening.
“Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake,” Mr Lewis said. He said Obama was “heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country.”
Protests continued across America and around the world – including in Britain.
Boris Johnson, the British Foreign Secretary, said that all British passport holders remain welcome in America, as he branded Donald Trump’s travel ban “divisive and wrong”.
As protesters started to flood streets across Britain on Monday evening, the Foreign Secretary told MPs that Britons “remain welcome to travel to the US” and the country’s embassy in London had confirmed President Trump’s executive order would make “no difference” to British passport holders.
Foreign Office sources suggested that the UK had secured a “special carve out” from Mr Trump’s policy.
Mr Johnson’s statement to the Commons came after the US Embassy had earlier suggested that UK citizens with dual nationality from one of the seven countries covered by the temporary travel ban – Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – should not seek to obtain a visa.
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