People Are Threatening To Boycott Trump’s Primetime Address About The Border Wall

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President Donald Trump will address the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday evening to talk about his campaign-promised border wall that Mexico was supposedly going to pay for but has somehow prompted a self-imposed government shutdown. All of the major networks have opted to air Trump’s speech, which is a controversial move for many reasons — not the least of which that the same networks airing the speech declined the same courtesy to former President Obama in 2014.

Then, of course, there’s the inevitability that the president ignores basic facts, and continues to blame Democrats for the shutdown even after he told Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer that he would refrain from doing so as cameras rolled. Another fear is that Trump will use the platform to abuse his power by declaring a national emergency to use money allocated to the military to build his wall.

One TV executive speaking to CNN on condition of anonymity blasted Trump for taking over airtime. “He calls us fake news all the time,” they said. “But needs access to airwaves and cable pipes to deliver his false narrative.”

It would seem that little, if any good will come out of tonight’s presidential address, but on the plus side, nobody is obligated to tune in. As such and on Twitter, a #BoycottTrumpPrimeTime hashtag has gained momentum, as people point out the various reasons not to tune in.

https://twitter.com/nkjemisin/status/1082685287170535424

Tune in or not, Tuesday evening’s speech is nearly guaranteed to be quite the spectacle either way.