Thread by @matt_cam

1/ I'm checking in on the state of American fascism by watching today's entire Trump #immigration speech so that you don't have to. Don't thank me yet.

2/ A CBP officer warms up the crowd... in Spanish. An uneasy tension spreads through the mostly-unmasked crowd, which changes up as he switches to English to explain that he is here so that "everyone can stop playing the race card"

3/ Another man in a CBP polo starts explaining that children will be raped and murdered in "Joe Biden's America" as organized crime operates with impunity, borders will be "nothing but a myth," and "chaos will reign."

@CBP: this you?

4/ The same speaker explains that Trump has "built the strongest economy in my lifetime."

"I know how much he cares about all of you," he says.

CBP, everyone

5/ A few seconds of "Proud to Be an American" play, apparently on accident. Trump then enters not to Hail to the Chief but a bumpin' Sousa march. "Proud to Be an American" bursts through a couple more times. Trump keeps waving like he's holding down a parade float

6/ He's here to play the hits, opening straight-up with his recent line about how he is going to get an extra term after the next one bc "we caught Sleepy Joe spying on our campaign."

He is here to accept the inevitable endorsement of the radical extremists of the CBP Council

7/ "Two things in a thousand years... never get old, wheels and walls."

Trump starts riffing on how much he loves his personal national police force and how "the survival of our nation is at stake"--even more than 2016. Fact check: yes

8/ Trump condemns "the radical left, socialists, and beyond," which sounds like a place I'd actually be happy to get a 20% off coupon for in the mail. Then:

"Every alien... a free ticket to a false asylum claim... a flood of illegal immigration like the world has never seen"

9/ Trump calls Biden's immigration plan--which, while fundamentally decent, mostly tries to undo some of the damage he did with the '96 reforms he helped pass--the single most radical proposal ever, or something, like I care

10/ "Biden's campaign has turned into a cult for open-border zealots," he says, continuing his 2020 campaign theme of accusing his opponent of doing his own worst stuff.

"Your stocks will be gone, your 401K will disappear. WHO HERE HAS STOCKS?" [Cheers]

11/ Trump riffs on the absurd fantasy that Joe Biden is running a "socialist" campaign, or has ever been anything but a representative for Delaware banks, credit cards, & insurance companies. Then on to Space Force.

"I'm the only candidate who ever gave you MORE than I promised"

12/ "If I weren't President, I don't think you'd have a Second Amendment right now. You will always have the right to bear arms."

you guys, we were so close. So close to completing the extremely simple & straightforward process of removing the 2nd Amendment from the Constitution

13/ Why did I do this to myself? Why does anyone else?

Only a few minutes into turning up the roiling boil this whole tableau is cooking my brain in and finding all kinds of newfound respect for @ddale8

14/ Trump introduces an NFL player to introduce the single most important subject the crowd has been waiting for: the choices that football players make with their lower bodies. "I bet you this guy, he'll never kneel." They love it. This is what they came for

15/ "What happened to the caravans? They don't come up anymore," Trump says. "Because we have been breaking our obligations under both international and domestic law for more than a year now," he does not add

16/ "They" let drugs "pour into our schools and our communities," he says. Does he mean the caravans? Latinos generally? Unclear. The crowd loves it. THEY. Hell yeah. Straight to their veins. They they they they they

17/ "Nobody talks about the wall anymore," he says, briefly referencing one of his most significant broken 2016 campaign promises before moving on to incomprehensible logorrhea about drug companies, "the rebate, we're bringing the rebate," etc

18/ A stream of numbers pours of out Trump's mouth, none of which I will bother to write down or fact check because they are lies.

Speaking of lies: on to CBP

19/ "We want people to come in, but we want them to come in through merit." He links this bipartisan concept closest to passing under Obama directly with more wall construction, just in case you don't know where the people with "real" merit AREN'T coming from

20/ Trump is going full-steam on his 2016 bullshit, calling "illegals" rapists, murderers, drug traffickers, etc.

"We never built the cages. Those cages were built in 2014 by Obama. The fake news says I built cages. I didn't build 'em."

"I just use 'em," he does not add

21/ One of my partners is attempting an intervention. "Why are you doing this to yourself?" she asks as she eyes my earbud as if she has just come home to find me with a needle in my arm

22/ "When Biden wins, it will be a win for MS-13 and all the criminal gangs." He immediately pivots to "China wants Biden to win so badly!"

China, famously home to MS-13

23/ Trump lists his "landmarks"

-the #travelban ("everyone said oh that's so bad! They said we lost, Debbie")
-arrested "criminal aliens"
-"stripped federal grant funding from deadly sanctuary cities"
-"canceled lawless policies"
-ended "abuse of our asylum system"

& that's it

24/ I took a quick sanity break, maybe there were more. He's going on about the #publiccharge rule, suspending work visas, the travel bans--you know, all that legal immigration he loves so much and wants everyone to do more of so much that he's destroying the whole system

25/ Riffing on Biden, Bernie, Kamala Harris. Complaining more about Biden's immigration plan without explaining any details. He claims that Biden would "release all illegal aliens from detention and close all the facilities." If fucking only

26/ He correctly explains that Biden promises to "terminate all protections we have enacted against asylum law."

Against asylum law.

AGAINST ASYLUM LAW

he knows nothing but the quiet part anymore

27/ After telling the crowd that their grandchildren will never be able to repay the debt that Biden/Harris administration would run up, Trump goes on an extended riff about the massive, unaccountable, and absurdly unnecessary military spending his administration has been doing

28/ "The next President will appoint 2, 3, maybe even 4 members of the Supreme Court. They could be on there 40 years! You pick 'em young."

"This is going to be the most important election of your life," he says before being drowned by fashy chanting

29/ "Stay healthy, stay safe," the unmasked President tells the unmasked crowd of voters

30/ "We've gotten rid of a lot of nonsense," the extremely normal democratically-elected leader of the world's freest nation says, "and if we don't win they can put it back."

"We will never ever let you down," he says as he leaves a state with 200,000 #COVID19 cases to... YMCA?

31/ lololol does even one of these people know what YMCA is about, this is amazing

32/ Anyway, my soul hurts and my brain is thirsty so I'm going to listen to the last episode of @blowbackpod and fire up a tasty @BeyondMeat sausage and not think about the fashfest I just witnessed for awhile