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.
No one needs to listen to a senile man spout incoherent racist rhetoric for an hour while 38 million Americans are losing their food stamps and thousands more are being evicted because of this pointless shutdown. #BoycottTrumpPrimeTime https://t.co/8lKdkpPKDN
— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) January 8, 2019
#BoycottTrumpPrimeTime this is a real crisis pic.twitter.com/Or9JsnA1w3
— Mr. October♏ (@Gee_L_Pee) January 8, 2019
https://twitter.com/nkjemisin/status/1082685287170535424
#BoycottTrumpPrimeTime because you can just wait and watch the exact same thing on Saturday Night Live. Gov't today is a parody. Full of lies. Threats of imaginary danger & more distractions. 6 people detained on watch list not thousands. btw is the water clean in Flint yet?
— KimberlyDewayn (@KimDSummons) January 8, 2019
… and now @realDonaldTrump's taking his #TrumpTantrum to a television network near you… doesn't change the fact that it's a racist & wasteful ($5,000,000,000) wall. #BoycottTrumpPrimeTime
— MoveOn (@MoveOn) January 8, 2019
Delay it and then bleep out all the lies because they are more offensive than profanity. #BoycottTrumpPrimeTime #BoycottTheLIES #PrimeTimeTrump #BoycotttheMF https://t.co/a3LOf43RgY
— Lesley Abravanel 🪩 (@lesleyabravanel) January 8, 2019
It is unacceptable that @ABC, @NBC and @CBS are allowing a man who has bragged about sexual assault, mocked a disabled reporter, demonized immigrants, incited violence at his rallies and emboldened right-wing extremism to appear on their networks. #BoycottTrumpPrimeTime
— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) January 8, 2019
If @realDonaldTrump cares about protecting Americans, why has he incited violence and inspired domestic terrorism?#BoycottTrumpPrimeTime
— Dr. DaShanne Stokes (@DaShanneStokes) January 8, 2019
Trump: The media is the enemy of the people
Also Trump: I need the media to give me airtime so I can use them to lie to the people #BoycottTrumpPrimeTime #ImpeachTheMF #TuesdayThoughts— (((Tara Dublin))), Rock Star Author 📚❤️🔥🤘🏻 (@taradublinrocks) January 8, 2019
Having a pathological liar as President is a real National Emergency. #BoycottTrumpPrimeTime
— Grant Stern (@grantstern) January 8, 2019
Tune in or not, Tuesday evening’s speech is nearly guaranteed to be quite the spectacle either way.