Thread by @Zathras3

OK, snap reaction: this was a speech for Limbaugh, Coulter, and Ingraham. They criticized him when he signaled he’d keep the government open, and he wilted. But after this speech, does Trump have more or less flexibility to give up his stupid wall?

Schumer & Pelosi said most of the right things. They looked like a couple of people crowded into a small counter space at a diner. Whose idea was that?

Good fact-checking of Trump speech by the usual journalists/experts, etc. on Twitter. But they’re tiptoeing around something fundamental. Trump invented this crisis, not over illegal immigration but over nonwhite immigration (not all of which is illegal).

Thousands of Europeans overstay visas in the United States every year. Trump never mentions them. They’re not the ones his @ICEgov & @CBP goons have rounded up and stuffed into detention camps; he hasn’t ordered their children seized.

Trump is fired up about people coming over the southern border because they are dark-skinned and speak Spanish. This also is responsive to Limbaugh, Ingraham and that crowd — though it probably reflects his own views.

We wouldn’t have this controversy without racial animus by Trump & his supporters. I don’t mean the government shutdown; I mean the bitter debate over immigration. That’s the key to this entire sorry episode. Most media would rather not mention it.

OK, one more comment, prompted by @FranklinFoer in @TheAtlantic -- The shutdown itself. Trump evaded the subject. He didn't mention the air travel system, the national parks, government medical research or tax collection by the IRS. He certainly didn't mention federal workers.

But Trump's administration still finds money to hunt down Mauritanians and deport them. He, and a number of his zealous supporters, really don't like black people any more than they like Hispanics, Expressing that hostility is very important to them. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…