I suspect the sole purpose of the Executive Order was the publicity generated, and the cachet garnered from his base. Mission accomplished.links18 said:Well, every single court to rule on this so far has ruled against the President. Granted these are preliminary injunctions, but it isn't looking good for the President. Probably, the real intention of initially applying this order to PRs was to test the boundaries of loyalty in the Department of Homeland Security in advance of what they have planned next--to draw out who was willing to go along and who put up resistance.
During the hoopla, there were other very significant political developments that were drowned out by this Executive Order, an anti-Trump petition in Britain, lawsuits against Trump in Florida, hanging up the telephone with the Australian PM, and threatening to invade Mexico again -- a truly magical barrage of misdirection, while largely unnoticed by the general public, significant changes to the economy and to the average American's finances were being effected.
This is a president not to be underestimated.