First off, welcome to anyone who is new and welcome back to those returning to Wayne State. I hope you all had a fun and safe break. For some this break and

holidays were harder then past years. We are just days away from having the longest government shutdown in US history. According to the Washington Post, 800,000

federal workers are affected by this shutdown. Some were sent home without pay until the government reopens or maybe not at all. And some, like TSA agents, are

forced to work without pay.

But why did this shutdown start? It started because President Donald Trump wants to build a wall on our southern border….a wall. If you remember any of Trump’s

campaign rallies, you know he promised his supporters Mexico would pay for the wall. Over and over again, Trump would chant to his supporters, “Who’s going to

pay for it? Mexico!” That was a lie. Trump has now shutdown the government and put 800,000 people out of work or working for free because congress wouldn’t give

him $5 billion in American taxpayer money for his wall.

Trump told reporters as he was leaving D.C. to go to his own private country club, that he can relate to furloughed workers, saying he thought landlords would

understand and give relief to those who can’t pay their rent. Going on to say all past presidents told him they agree with his shutdown and fight for a wall. All living

past presidents have denied this. Trump will tell lie after lie.

While the government was open and Republicans owned the House and the Senate, Congress passed a bipartisan bill to keep the government open with no money

for his border wall. Trump refused to sign it, paving the way for the shutdown. He even told the American public in a on-camera meeting with Democratic leaders

that he would own the shutdown and would gladly shut the government down for his border wall.

Government shutdowns have historically not worked to use as a political tool. Make no mistake about it, this shutdown is being used as a political tool. Trump threw

a temper tantrum like we have become accustomed to seeing with this president, and essentially took a ball and went home. Trump and his pundits have tried to swing

the blame for the shutdown onto the Democrats with little success. According to CNN, the average of all the polls taken since the start of the shutdown show 55% of

Americans blame the Republicans and Trump for the shutdown while 35% of Americans blame Democrats.

Trump will be giving a prime-time speech to the American public to plead his case for the wall on Tuesday night. As of writing the speech has not taken place, but

if it is anything like his past statements on the border wall and really anything in general, it will be full of inaccuracies and just flat out lies.

Trump has falsely claimed terrorists are crossing our southern border at record numbers. This is false. Sarah Sanders went onto, what is normally a Republican safe

haven, Fox News last weekend for an interview with Chris Wallace about the ongoing shutdown. Sanders tried to push a false narrative. Sanders claimed 4,000 known

or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally and our most vulnerable point of entry is the southern border. To his credit, because a lot of folks at Fox News

would not have done it in his position, Wallace cut Sanders off to point out her misleading comment. Wallace pointed out that while the number of 4,000 terrorists

coming into our country is accurate, how they come into our country is not through the southern border. According to the State Department, which is ran by a Trump

appointee, no known or suspected terrorist was caught coming across the southern border, but they were caught in airports.

Trump’s lies and tactics have turned even his own network against him.

Whatever he does say tonight, do your own due diligence and look up the facts. Trump will be hoping you just sit and listen to his lies and not look for information

yourself. We don’t need this wall. It is nothing more than a racist symbol that will do nothing to stop illegal border crossings.