After a week of wreaking havoc on the domestic policies and politics of the United States, President Donald Trump put his poisonous pen to an executive order on Saturday barring refugees and targeting Muslims from seven nations, deeming them to be a terrorist threat.

In a stroke, he issued a sweeping ban against those seeking refuge in his nation, effectively prohibiting visitors from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia — immediately drawing international criticism from his allies, academics and civil rights activists alike. Even green card holders — those with residency rights in the US — were affected by the ban.

Thankfully, the executive order has been stayed by a federal court order, based on the grounds that it is discriminatory on religious and ethnic grounds, and runs contrary to provisions of the US constitution. Trump’s diktat, however, has had a chilling effect, forcing thousands to alter their plans and many more to think twice about even attempting to visit the US.

What is clear is that President Trump is intent on following through on his slew of controversial campaign promises that struck a chord with the electorate of the US rust-belt states. Coal and pipelines are back, the wall with Mexico has been ordered up, and now — barring that small matter of a federal restraining order — Muslim refugees are effectively shut out, all in the name of making America great again.

What Trump and those who rally to his populist agenda fail to understand is that America’s greatness isn’t defined by its factories, its coal mines, its steel mills nor its automobile plants. America’s greatness is based on its rights and freedoms.

From the very moment the representatives of its 13 colonies met in Philadelphia, the revolutionary spirit of America was forged in the notion that all men are created equal, and all are blessed with the same inalienable rights. And those rights were further enshrined in the constitution. All are equal — even Muslims. And when, over the past 250 years, millions flocked to its shores, they did so in the hope, belief and knowledge that they had equal access, equal opportunity and equality before the law. Its North and South bloodily fought to protect that principle of equality.

In New York Harbour, the Statue of Liberty shines as a beacon to those who fled their homes. It reads: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

These are words Trump ought remember.