The Stateless Union

The first and foremost reason I was interested is that I thought Trump might signal his strategy on the border wall — e.g. whether he was willing to shut down the government again, or declare a national emergency, or whatever else. But he didn’t really do that. It’s not even clear that he has his strategy figured out. Now, arguably, the lack of a threat to shut down the government or to declare an emergency is itself newsworthy, a pulling back from the brink if you will, but there was also enough rhetoric about the importance of the wall and how dangerous illegal immigration is that I’m not sure I’d give too much credence to that theory. Nate Silver