Axios

President Trump's immigration executive order is drawing fire from medical researchers, who say the open thinking that's needed in medical science will be hurt by the order barring people from seven majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States. STAT reports that more than 4,000 academics have signed a petition protesting the ban, including former National Institutes of Health director Harold Varmus and other prominent medical researchers.

Amitabh Chandra, director of health policy research at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, tweeted this:

And Jonathan Bush, president and CEO of the health care technology company Athenahealth, tweeted that he was "Feeling like man w/o country."

CEOs of tech giants across the country are issuing statements condemning Trump's executive order banning people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia from entering the U.S.

From Ben Sasse, the junior senator from Nebraska:

"The President is right to focus attention on the obvious fact that borders matter. At the same time, while not technically a Muslim ban, this order is too broad. There are two ways to lose our generational battle against jihadism by losing touch with reality. The first is to keep pretending that jihadi terrorism has no connection to Islam or to certain countries. That's been a disaster. And here's the second way to fail: If we send a signal to the Middle East that the U.S. sees all Muslims as jihadis, the terrorist recruiters win by telling kids that America is banning Muslims and that this is America versus one religion. Both approaches are wrong, and both will make us less safe. Our generational fight against jihadism requires wisdom."

Trump took steps today aimed at fighting terrorism and corruption. They come after yesterday's order temporarily banning immigrants from certain countries from traveling to the U.S. Today's actions:

Action #1: Implements a five year lobbying ban on administration officials. "This is something I've talked about a lot on the campaign trail... and now we're putting it into effect," said Trump.

Action #2: Calls for a reorganization of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council.

Action #3: Calls on military leaders to present a report to the president in 30 days that outlines a strategy for defeating ISIS. "This is the plan to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, in other words ISIS. I think it's going to be very successful."

Trump's order temporarily bars visas for people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. Refugee resettlements are suspended for 120 days, and refugees from Syria are barred indefinitely. The order led to people being kept off U.S.-bound planes, confusion and protests at U.S. airports and criticism from the heads of technology companies.

It's not a Muslim ban, but we were totally prepared. It's working out very nicely. You see it at the airports, you see it all over.— Trump to reporters in the Oval Office today

Rolling updates below:

One sentence from the White House readout of Trump's call with Germany's Merkel:

The President and Chancellor also agreed on the NATO Alliance's fundamental importance to the broader transatlantic relationship and its role in ensuring the peace and stability of our North Atlantic community.

The annual black-tie dinner of the Alfalfa Club is the board meeting of America's establishment: The 750 guests tonight include Warren Buffett, Tim Cook, Jamie Dimon, Bill Gates, Bob Gates, Vernon Jordan, Charlie Rose, Jeb Bush, James Baker and plenty more moguls and grandees. The head table, stretching across a giant ballroom, includes the Cabinet, the congressional leadership and the cream of the diplomatic corps.

President Trump's name is in the program, seated between Michael Bloomberg and Chief Justice Roberts.

But in a shot at the swamp, Trump isn't coming. The White House says he'll be working, and never committed to going. Vice President Pence is still expected and some West Wing officials, including Kellyanne Conway, plan to attend. Chief strategist Steve Bannon was going, but now will be with the president in some briefings.

Others from the Trump inner circle who are expected: Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus, Gary Cohn, Hope Hicks, deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, incoming Sec. of State Rex Tillerson, incoming Sec. of Defense James Mattis and incoming Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross. Dina Powell, Trump's senior counselor for economic initiatives, is a "sprout" – an inductee to Alfalfa.

The evening includes funny speeches, with plenty of barbs aimed at the president. During the debate over whether Trump should go, some aides worried that a zinger might rankle the boss. Now they won't have to fret about the piercing comedy stylings of Mayor Bloomberg and Erskine Bowles.

The failing @nytimes has been wrong about me from the very beginning. Said I would lose the primaries, then the general election. FAKE NEWS!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2017

Fact check: Mostly true. The New York Times predicted that Donald Trump would lose the general election, even up through election night. While they were accurate towards the end of the primary on Trump, they admitted to underestimating him throughout the process.

Thr coverage about me in the @nytimes and the @washingtonpost gas been so false and angry that the times actually apologized to its.....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2017

Fact check: False. There was no form of an apology in the letter Donald Trump is referring to in that tweet. A Trump spokesman said the letter refers to an admission that they underestimated Trump's chances at winning.

...dwindling subscribers and readers.They got me wrong right from the beginning and still have not changed course, and never will. DISHONEST — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 28, 2017

Fact check on "dwindling subscribers and readers": False. The New York Times added over 130,000 subscribers within a month after Donald Trump's election. The Washington Post broke its own traffic records in October, reaching almost 100 million monthly unique visitors.

Something we're watching: This is all part of Donald Trump's media manipulation playbook. He's used this exact attack before, shortly after he was elected.

This passage from a NYT story on refugees being stopped in airports in the hours after Trump's executive order banning entry for people from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days:

The lawyers said that one of the Iraqis detained at Kennedy Airport, Hameed Khalid Darweesh, had worked on behalf of the U.S. government in Iraq for 10 years. The other, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, was coming to the United States to join his wife, who had worked for a U.S. contractor, and young son, the lawyers said. They said both men were detained at the airport Friday night after arriving on separate flights.

The attorneys said they were not allowed to meet with their clients, and there were tense moments as they tried to reach them.

"Who is the person we need to talk to?" asked one of the lawyers, Mark Doss, supervising attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project.

"Mr. President," said a Customs and Border Protection agent, who declined to identify himself. "Call Mr. Trump."

Read more: our attempt to parse the order.