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Trump Rails Against Court Ruling Blocking Travel Ban

By Jeremy Diamond

NASHVILLE, TN. (CNN) -- President Donald Trump on Wednesday decried a federal judge's decision to block the travel ban he enacted via a revised executive order as a politically motivated decision that makes the US look "weak" and vowed to take his case to the Supreme Court if necessary.

"The order he blocked was a watered-down version of the first order that was also blocked by another judge and should have never been blocked to start with," Trump said during his rally in Nashville. "This new order was tailored to the dictates of the 9th Circuit's -- in my opinion -- flawed ruling."

Trump called the court actions blocking his orders "unprecedented judicial overreach."

READ: Philly Joins Nearly 2 Dozen Other Cities In Legal Action Against Trump's Travel Ban

Trump also said he would have preferred to keep his original ban in place and suggested his administration should reinstate that order, which caused widespread upheaval in airports and sparked protests across the country. It was blocked last month by a separate federal court.

"And let me tell you something, I think we ought to go back to the first one and go all the way, which is what I wanted to do in the first place," Trump said.

The President's comments came during a previously scheduled campaign rally. It took place shortly after US District Court Judge Derrick Watson blocked Trump's executive order. The new travel ban was set to take force Thursday.

READ: Judge In Hawaii Puts Trump's Travel Ban On Hold

The new executive order removed Iraq from the original list of seven banned countries, stripped away language about prioritizing religious minorities in the refugee admissions process and did not include an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. But it still banned citizens of six Muslim-majority countries -- Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen -- and temporarily stopped the admission of all refugees.

Trump slammed the judge's decision as one that would make the US look weak and endanger US national security.

"We're talking about the safety of our nation. The safety and security of our people," Trump said. "The need for my executive order was clear. I was elected to change our broken and dangerous system and thinking in government that has weakened and endangered our country and left people defenseless."

The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2017 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

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