The Department of Homeland Security under Trump has prohibited passengers from carrying certain types of electronic devices into the cabin of airplanes coming to the US:

Passengers traveling to the United States from 10 airports in eight Muslim-majority countries will be prohibited from bringing laptops, tablets and other portable electronic devices on board with them when they fly, according to new rules set to take effect Tuesday.

Fliers can still travel with these items, but they must be packed in their checked baggage on U.S.-bound flights from airports across eight countries including busy transit hubs in Istanbul, Dubai and Doha, Qatar.

Senior U.S. administration officials said the rules were prompted by “evaluated intelligence” that terrorists continue to target commercial aviation by “smuggling explosives in portable electronic devices.”

It’s another annoying inconvenience, although I am certain that some people will see it as a terrible trial. Passengers are still allowed to take their cellphones with them and use them, although that information isn’t made clear until nearly the end of the lengthy WaPo article. If you look at the comments to the article, you can see that a lot of people seem to think that this is one of the many terrible things the nefarious Trump has done—for example, here’s a rather typical remark in the comments:

A checked laptop is a huge problem to an international traveler. Soon, international conferences will stop being held in the US. Scientists and engineers will need to travel overseas to conferences. Tourists will stop coming to the US. This will all happen because Trump needs to create the illusion that his administration is doing something.

Other comments of the same sort are legion; some examples here:

“This ban seems more geared towards intimidation or harassment than security…”

“This seems to be more an attempt to do damage to middle east based airlines.”

“This sounds like another work around to effect a Muslim ban.”

I agree that it’s an inconvenience. But isn’t it the case that on a cellphone one can still read documents if loaded onto the device, surf the internet if there’s a connection, and even do some writing (albeit slowly)?

I’m of two minds about this sort of restriction. It seems to go too far while at the same time not going far enough. What do I mean by too far and not far enough? It’s not clear that it will stop any terrorist, and it’s highly unlikely to stop every terrorist (for example, what about rigged laptops in the luggage hold?), while it manages to inconvenience an enormous number of passengers. Terrorists will keep innovating, because—in an interconnected world in which international trade and travel is key and in which Islamic terrorism is also rampant—the terrorists are out to harm people and business in the Muslim world as much or even more than they are out to harm us. To them, the inconvenience is almost as good as the terrorist act.

Those who predictably and repetitively blame this sort of rule on Trump are ignoring the fact that Britain is set to implement very similar regulations:

…[T]he Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said: “The additional security measures may cause some disruption for passengers and flights, and we understand the frustration that will cause, but our top priority will always be to maintain the safety of British nationals.”

In the US, the question is whether some district judge in Hawaii or Maryland will decide that this is an unconscionable, unconstitutional case of religious discrimination and overrule the DHS. Watch for it.