White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday that State Department officials who oppose President Trump’s executive order temporarily barring citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. can leave their posts if they’re unhappy.
“I think that they should either get with the program or they can go,” said Spicer, who referred to the officials as “career bureaucrats.”
{mosads}Trump on Friday signed an executive order that imposes a 90-day immigration ban on citizens from Iran, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Iraq. The order also includes a 120-day ban on admitting refugees and an indefinite halt on admitting refugees specifically from Syria.
Reports emerged Monday that State Department officials were preparing a “dissent” memo over the order.
“This ban will have little practical effect in improving public safety … [and] calls back to some of the worst times in our history,” the memo reportedly says.
These types of memos are typically disseminated through the agency’s “dissent channel,” allowing officials an outlet to voice differing opinions on policy.
But Spicer said officials opposed to the order may want to consider Trump’s agenda going forward.
“He’s going to implement things that are in the best interest of protecting this country prospectively, not reactively,” he said. “And if somebody has a problem with that agenda, then that does call into question whether or not they should continue in that post or not.”