Sean Spicer Won't Call Immigration Order A 'Ban,' But President Trump Will

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer decried the media's referral to a recent executive order as a "travel ban" or "Muslim ban," saying it is only a "vetting system" — despite the fact the President Trump himself called it a ban.

"The president has talked about extreme vetting, and the need to keep America safe, for a very, very long time; at the same time, he's also made very clear that this is not 'Muslim ban,' it's not a 'travel ban,' it's a vetting system," Spicer said.

But Trump has referred to the policy, which does temporarily bar immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the country, and at first subjected even green card holders to case-by-case evaluation and detention, as a ban:

When a reporter pointed this out, Spicer said, "Well, he's using the word that the media is using."

Notice, however, that Trump did not put the word "ban" in quotes, as people usually do to indicate they're using other people's language. He did, however, put quotes around "bad" and "dudes."

"It can't be a ban if you're letting 1 million people in," Spicer said.

This is not strictly true — restaurants, country clubs and nations can ban even a single individual from their premises, regardless of how many other people they let in.

Regardless, Spicer himself called the order a ban Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

The broader idea of a "Muslim ban" itself comes from Trump's campaign; in December of 2015, he called for the "a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." Rudy Giuliani told FOX News that he helped Trump come up with the idea for the executive order when Trump asked how he could get a Muslim ban through "legally."

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