Trump says idiotic things every of the week. Honestly, it is hard to even take him seriously anymore – but I know people will be concerned about his comments today – so I will address them.

As many will know, there was a terrorist attack yesterday by a scumbag originally from Uzbekistan. As far as Trump can be believed, the terrorist originally gained his Green Card through the DV lottery program – and in true ignorant style, Trump began to discuss this as a need to shut down the DV lottery program.

So – can Trump act on that? Can he stop the DV lottery program, based on his whim? NO – he cannot.

The DV lottery is part of US immigration law. As has been demonstrated several times over the recent months, US law is more powerful than the ill informed rantings of a moronic president. He does have power to instruct his administration to operate in certain ways – so he could, for instance, slow down background checks and so on – but to an extent, we have already seen those changes over the last year or two (even prior to Trump’s election).

Now – Trump can ask congress to debate and vote on proposed immigration bills – and there are bills already in process that would, if adopted, end the DV program in favor of merit based systems. However, existing bills are very “ambitious” in their approach, to the point where the bills are unlikely to have broad support. Without that support, the bills are irrelevant. Could there be a new bill introduced that selectively ended the DV program – yes – theoretically that is possible, but not likely in my opinion – and would not be implemented fast enough to affect the current DV2018 program.

So to be clear. There is no impact to the DV2018 program.

In the immediate term  the DV program has appeared in the news in this sad and unfortunate way. Trump had clearly never even heard of the DV lottery – he called it the “diversory lottery”.

Frankly, the method of immigration 7 years ago is largely irrelevant – whether this terrorist was here through the DV lottery or some other way makes no difference. The fact is, he became radicalized here in the USA.  Trump fails to understand that.

Trump also fails to understand the many positive stories from the DV lottery program. People who come here through DV are brave and ambitious people. It’s hard to go through the process, and it is very hard to move to a new country and make a new life in a strange country. Those that do it want the best for themselves and their energy, effort and diversity enriches the lives of all they meet.

So finally I would say to keep calm. Ignore the words of the person who sits in the White House at the moment – and remember that the USA is greater than one unwise fool.