THREAD: The President of the United States said today that "domestic terrorists have taken over Seattle," the 18th largest city in the nation. This is totally untethered from reality. But nobody cared, because it's "Trump being Trump." Well, I care. Let's take a close look. (1/8) 
First: Let's look at Trump's comments about Seattle. Here is context from my colleague @ddale8, the gold standard of fact-checking. Trump is referring to an "autonomous zone" protesters set up in a tiny part of the city. His comments are inaccurate. (2/8)
Trump is massively exaggerating the situation. At most, the "autonomous zone" spans 4x4 blocks in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. I used Google Maps, and the zone is ~0.08 square miles. That covers less than 1% of the entire city of Seattle, which is 142 square miles. (3/8)
So, we've established that "domestic terrorists" have not "taken over Seattle," even though that's what Trump claimed. But while we're on the topic..... here is some recent history that tells us a lot about Trump, domestic terrorism, and racial inequality. (4/8)
Perhaps the most recent example of "domestic terrorists" taking over US land was in 2016, when white, armed, far-right protesters took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in rural Oregon. Trump never tweeted about this and I don't think he's ever spoken about it. (5/8)
Here's a refresher: A far-right militia took over the refuge in Jan. 2016 and occupied the main building for 40 days. (armed takeover of federal property) Eventually, the feds shut things down and indicted the militants. Some pled guilty, some were convicted, some acquitted (6/8)
One of the white militants was actually killed by law enforcement in a standoff. LaVoy Finicum. He was pulled over, but instead of surrendering, he led police and the FBI on a car chase. He was cornered, and reached for a gun, and was shot to death. (7/8) vox.com/2016/1/27/1084…
So, what does this have to do with Trump?? Well, the militants invaded the refuge to protest federal land management policy and the arson convictions of two Oregon ranchers. Trump pardoned both of the ranchers in 2018, saying "justice is overdue." (8/8) cnn.com/2018/07/10/pol…
