“It’s not a Muslim ban. I will never support a Muslim ban. I don’t think we should ever ban anyone based on their religion,” said Haley, who firmly opposed the idea last year when she was the governor of South Carolina. “That is un-American. It is not good. What the president is doing, everybody needs to realize that what he’s doing is saying, ‘Let’s take a step back. Let’s temporarily pause.’”

In her first interview since she began working for the Trump administration, Haley spoke Wednesday with TODAY’s Matt Lauer just hours before a federal judge in Hawaii blocked enforcement of the ban, right before the executive order was scheduled to go into effect Thursday.

Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, told TODAY that she does not believe the president’s order discriminates or has anything to do with religion.

“He’s saying let’s temporarily pause, and you prove to me that the vetting is okay, that I can trust these people coming through for the American people,” she said.