THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

As part of his campaign to isolate the United States behind a yuge barrier of bigly safety, The Tangerine Shitgibbon was touting his "Extreme Vetting" of immigrants to the country. At no point in his gassing the public did he ever make the slightest attempt to explain what he meant. It turns out there was always nothing behind those words.

When a federal judge blocked President Trump’s first attempt to impose a travel ban on seven majority-Muslim nations, Mr. Trump warned of “death & destruction” from dangerous people who “may be pouring into our country.”

“Courts must act fast!” he implored on Twitter.

But in the 128 days since, the president’s administration has exhibited little urgency of its own.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers have moved slowly in responding to legal challenges to the White House’s initial and revised travel bans. And immigration experts say the administration has not taken steps it could have — even while the latest ban is tied up in the courts — to achieve the restriction’s stated goal: to tighten the vetting of people trying to get into the United States.

The result has been that almost halfway through his first year in office, Mr. Trump has made few changes to the way people enter the United States from the countries he has deemed the most dangerous, despite his frequent campaign promises to institute “extreme vetting.”

“President Trump is more interested in trying to win a rhetorical victory,” said Gregory Z. Chen, the director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “The question is really, what steps have they taken to make sure that vetting can happen effectively, rather than clinging to a ban that has suffered terrible losses in the courts?”

Administration officials say they are handcuffed because of vetting restrictions imposed by one of the federal judges who put a hold on the revised travel ban. The officials say they have done what they can to tighten the borders, including by announcing this month that some visa applicants will be required to provide more biographical information and reveal their social media postings.

But critics say the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies have always had — and continue to have — plenty of authority to evaluate threats from any country and impose tougher vetting on visa applicants.

Another one of The Tangerine Shitgibbons Potemkin Promises. They look good on the face of it, but like a Hollywood set, there is nothing behind them.