'The world is a mess': Trump explained why he doesn't fear backlash to his immigration order
ABC's David Muir asked Trump in the interview if he was "all concerned" that his executive action, which he went on to issue two days later, would "cause more anger among Muslims around the world?"
"Anger? There's plenty of right now. How can you have more?" Trump said.
Muir asked whether Trump thought it could "exacerbate the problem."
"David, David - I mean, I know you're a sophisticated guy," Trump said. "The world is a mess. The world is as angry as it gets. What, you think this is going to cause a little more anger? The world is an angry place."
But as the order was put into practice, the detention of two Iraqi refugees who had been granted asylum in the US on Saturday sparked a wave of protests around the country and world.
Lawyers representing the two Iraqi refugees swiftly filed legal challenges to Trump's executive order, and a federal judge in Brooklyn issued an emergency ruling Saturday evening to prevent the continued deportation of travelers.
The ruling, a temporary emergency stay, now allows those who landed in the US and hold a valid visa to remain. Federal judges in Virginia, Massachusetts, and Washington also made emergency rulings on various aspects of the executive order.
Trump's order bars people from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for entering the US for 90 days. It has already strained relations between the US and Iraq, which are currently in a joint operation to fight ISIS.