After Boulder attack, Trump revives Muslim travel ban with targeted changes
Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary, told Jewish leaders the order is being tailored in response to the Egyptian-born suspect charged in the firebombing of Jewish marchers
President Donald Trump on May 30. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh June 4, 2025
This post has been updated following the signing of Trump’s executive order:
President Donald Trump signed a modified version of his first term’s controversial Muslim travel ban executive order, spurred by the recent firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, which injured a dozen Jewish marchers.
Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary, who is Jewish, first delivered the news earlier on Wednesday during a private briefing with Jewish leaders hosted by the White House Faith Office, according to several people present.
Scharf said the reinstated executive order would be tailored to the background of the suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an immigrant from Egypt.
The original ban and the modified version Trump signed Wednesday night do not apply to Egypt, but Trump ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio — in consultation with other national security cabinet secretaries — to review “the practices and procedures of Egypt to confirm the adequacy of its current screening and vetting capabilities.”
The countries in the new executive order include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The U.S. will also impose heightened restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
Soliman was charged with multiple offenses, including attempted murder and a federal hate crime. According to a police affidavit, he posed as a gardener to get close to the crowd at a gathering for Israeli hostages on Sunday, and told investigators he intended to “kill all Zionist people.”
He was born in Egypt and spent 17 years living in Kuwait before relocating to Colorado. He was in the U.S. “illegally,” according to Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, after entering the country on a tourist visa and later receiving a work permit that expired in March.
Immigration agents have also detained Soliman’s family as they investigate whether they had prior knowledge of his plans. On Wednesday, a federal judge issued a stay halting deportation proceedings against Soliman’s wife and five children.
The so-called Muslim travel ban in 2017 barred entry to the U.S. for individuals from seven Muslim majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. It sparked nationwide protests, was repeatedly challenged in court and widely condemned as discriminatory. The Supreme Court upheld a narrower version in 2018. President Joe Biden subsequently removed the ban and Trump campaigned on a pledge to reinstate it.
“President Trump is fulfilling his promise to protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors that want to come to our country and cause us harm,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in response to a query about the ban’s specifics.
“These commonsense restrictions are country-specific and include places that lack proper vetting, exhibit high visa overstay rates, or fail to share identity and threat information,” she said. “President Trump will ALWAYS act in the best of interest of the American people and their safety.”
A number of influential conservatives and far–right commentators capitalized on the Boulder attack to generalize the extremist views of the suspect as representative of all Muslims and Arabs.
Laura Loomer, a far-right internet activist who has advised Trump on hirings and firings, called for the deportation of all non-U.S. citizen Muslims.
Hannah Feuer contributed to this report.
