After a weekend of turmoil at many of the nation’s airports following President Trump's executive order to suspend the U.S. refugee program and temporarily prohibit entry to citizens of seven predominantly Muslim nations, federal officials said all people being detained on arrival to the U.S. had been released. But that hasn’t put a stop to demands to lift the travel ban.

Protests continued to be held and organized throughout the country — incluidng in New York, New Orleans, Colorado and Connecticut. According to Ground Game, an online platform for organizing, at least a dozen demonstrations were planned for this week in what the group described as a “fight against Islamophobia and Fascism."

Calls to rally, demonstrate and protest swept social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook.

Former President Obama has offered his first public comment on the conduct of his successor, saying through a spokesman that he "is heartened" by public demonstrations against the Trump administration's controversial move to temporarily ban refugees and block all admissions from seven countries.

"President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country," Kevin Lewis, a spokesperson for the former president, said in a statement emailed to reporters Monday.

"In his final official speech as President, he spoke about the important role of citizen and how all Americans have a responsibility to be the guardians of our democracy--not just during an election but every day. Citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake."

It’s what congressional Republicans had long dreamed about: a majority in both chambers to advance conservative policies and a president from the same party to sign them into law.

But the Trump White House isn’t turning out exactly the way they envisioned.

The GOP establishment is experiencing whiplash after a week of President Trump bulldozing through the norms of policy and protocol — dashing off executive orders without warning, escalating a diplomatic crisis with the country’s closest southern neighbor, triggering global confusion with a new refugee policy and generally hijacking party leaders’ agenda and replacing it with his own. 

Opening a new legal front, lawyers for the state of Washington filed suit Monday seeking to block President Trump’s executive order temporarily banning foreign refugees from entering the United States.

“No one is above the law, not even the president,” Atty. Gen. Bob Ferguson said in announcing the federal lawsuit. “And in the courtroom, it is not the loudest voice that prevails. It’s the Constitution.”

Over the weekend, a federal judge in Brooklyn issued an order curtailing portions of Trump’s executive order, issued Friday, which temporary halts migration from seven predominantly Muslim countries for at least 90 days and also closed the nation to refugees for at least the next four months. Other challenges are pending.

For nearly 25 years, Charlie Sykes was one of the most powerful and influential voices in Wisconsin.

He cheer-led policies that turned this historically progressive state into a model of conservative governance. He made and destroyed political careers, using his perch on Milwaukee talk radio to help vault figures such as House Speaker Paul Ryan and Gov. Scott Walker to national prominence.

But for the moment Sykes was speechless. He sank into the brown leather banquette of a suburban steakhouse. He stammered. He sighed.

The Pentagon is compiling a list of Iraqi citizens who have worked with the U.S. military and is recommending that they be exempt from President Trump’s temporary ban on entry to the U.S. by people from Iraq and six other predominantly Muslim countries, according to the U.S. military.

The move could potentially shield tens of thousands of Iraqi interpreters, advisors, and others who have assisted the American military from the president’s controversial executive action that blocked visitors from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen.

Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Monday that the list will include names of individuals who have “demonstrated their commitment” to helping the United States.

President Trump signed an executive order Monday designed to fulfill his campaign pledge reduce red tape for businesses.

The two-page order requires that when a federal agency proposes new regulations, "it shall identify at least two existing regulations to be repealed."

“We want to make the life easier for small businesses” and big business, Trump said Monday from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, where he met with nine representatives of the small-business sector.

A number of U.S. diplomats are condemning President Trump's ban on some Muslim immigrants and visitors, saying the abrupt order does not make the U.S. safer and will only stoke anti-American fervor overseas.

The complaint, being made through the State Department's so-called dissent channel, echoes criticism coming from human rights attorneys, legal experts and lawmakers from both political parties, as well as world leaders.

It is significant because it represents the viewpoint of the men and women who must carry out Trump's unconventional and often provocative foreign policy.

President Trump will announce his first Supreme Court nomination in prime time on Tuesday, he tweeted this morning.

The announcement was moved up two days amid the continued fallout from the executive action Trump signed temporarily banning refugee admissions from some countries. Trump had tweeted last week that he would announce his high-court decision Thursday.

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network on Friday, Trump said his administration was doing some final vetting of his choice to replace the late Antonin Scalia, and that the pick would be from among the list of 20 names he issued during the election campaign.