The Trump administration moved the US department of justice on Saturday night to appeal a Federal District Court ruling against the suspension of President Trump's travel ban on people from seven mainly Muslim nations.

At airports around the world, small numbers of travellers from the previously banned countries began venturing trips to the US, knowing the judge’s ruling could be overturned at any time, reported The New York Times.

The State Department reversed its cancellation of visas for people from the seven affected countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — and aid groups scrambled to take advantage of what they saw as a brief window for refugees to enter the US.

On Saturday night, as Trump arrived at a Red Cross gala at Mar-a-Lago, his waterfront Florida resort, where he was spending the first getaway weekend of his presidency, reporters asked him if he was confident he would prevail in the government’s appeal. “We’ll win,” he replied. “For the safety of the country, we’ll win.”

The legal manoeuvring led Trump to lash out at Judge James Robart of the Federal District Court in Seattle throughout the day, prompting criticism that the president had failed to respect the judicial branch and its power to check on his authority.

In an early-morning Twitter post, Trump wrote, “The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!”

Late Saturday, the Justice Department filed papers saying that it would seek to have the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit block the judge’s decision, the Times said.

 Judge Robart, who was appointed by President George W Bush, declared in his ruling on Friday that “there’s no support” for the administration’s argument that “we have to protect the US from individuals” from the affected countries.

Judge Robart’s ruling also barred the administration from enforcing its limits on accepting refugees. The State Department said on Saturday that refugees, including Syrians, could begin arriving as early as Monday. Syrians had faced an indefinite ban under the executive order. His ruling applied nationwide.

The court said it would soon issue an order setting a briefing schedule, according to the newspaper.