The order appears to run afoul of U.S. laws preventing discrimination based on religious beliefs. In an interview with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Trump admitted he wanted to give priority to Christian refugees. David Brody: "The refugee program that—or the refugee changes you’re looking to make, as it relates to persecuted Christians, do you see them as kind of a priority here?" President Donald Trump: "Yes." David Brody: "You do?" President Donald Trump: "They’ve been horribly treated. Do you know, if you were a Christian in Syria, it was impossible, very, very—at least very, very tough to get into the United States? If you were a Muslim, you could come in, but if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible. And the reason that was so unfair is that the—everybody was persecuted, in all fairness, but they were chopping off the heads of everybody, but more so the Christians. And I thought it was very, very unfair. So, we are going to help them." Trump later walked back those comments, saying in a statement Sunday night that his immigration ban was not about religion. But one of Trump’s top advisers said the president explicitly ordered a Muslim ban. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani ® said in an interview on Saturday that President Trump had previously asked him about legally implementing a "Muslim ban." But Giuliani then disputed the notion that the president's sweeping executive order barring refugees and people from seven predominantly Muslim nations amounts to a ban on Muslims. "I’ll tell you the whole history of it: When he first announced it, he said ‘Muslim ban,'" Giuliani said on Fox News. "He called me up, he said, ‘Put a commission together, show me the right way to do it legally.’"