Social Media Reacts To Donald Trump's Sweeping Travel Ban

Image: PHOTO: President Donald Trump. (photo via Flickr/Gage Skidmore)
Image: PHOTO: President Donald Trump. (photo via Flickr/Gage Skidmore)
Gabe Zaldivar
by Gabe Zaldivar
Last updated: 7:45 PM ET, Sat January 28, 2017

On Friday, President Donald Trump penned an executive order that broadly shuts American borders to a wide swath of travelers.

By Saturday, chaos had ensued.

As TravelPulse's Rich Thomaselli wrote, Trump's order will continue over the course of 120 days, effectively shutting off entry into the United States to, "refugees and citizens from seven predominantly Muslim nations."

Over the weekend, that meant the world would watch (mostly in horror) as airport officials detained refugees, leading to widespread protest taking place at airports around the nation. Consequently, a country whose citizens espouse its lasting commitment to inclusion saw many confounded and frustrated as they sought to understand what the travel ban meant to themselves, loved ones and refugees fleeing terror and tragedy.

Social media, as it so often does in these cases, serves as a barometer to the moment, offering a spotlight to the emotion, energy and outpouring from a nation reacting to a motivated administration.

Here are just some of the things we spotted around social media channels.

The biggest tweet was perhaps the one that belongs to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who welcomed those seeking refuge.

Various heads of state and celebrities reacted to the tweet:

Other world leaders also made their thoughts known, even agreeing with President Trump:

[READMORE]READ MORE: Immigration Ban Already Having Impact On Travel, Airports [/READMORE]

Sama Dizayee, the BBC World and Voice of America contributor was flummoxed as to what the ban meant to her travel plans, facing the very real threat that she might be denied entry back into the United States. Here is her exchange with Virgin Atlantic, a carrier that was equally befuddled as to what the executive order meant in her case.

She also poses a very important question:

The protests over the ban and detainment of migrants at airports had Twitter spinning:

The immense reaction and fallout continued:


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