Trump Offers Deportation Protections in Exchange for Wall Funding – The New York Times

It was the second time during the shutdown that the president addressed the nation about what he has called an immigration crisis.

This time, Mr. Trump made the speech standing behind a lectern, under an oil portrait of George Washington, a setting aides said he preferred to the seated, direct-to-camera Oval Office address he delivered earlier this month when he highlighted what he described as a growing “security crisis” at the border.

He tried to weave in the concessions to Democrats with a hard-line appeal to his base, opening his remarks with the same kinds of warnings of exploited children and rape that he said confront undocumented immigrants at the border.

But over all, the remarks stood in contrast to that prime-time address, in which the president sought to reframe the debate by outlining examples of grisly violence at the border. That address, which Mr. Trump was reluctant to make, failed to turn public opinion to his side. This time, Mr. Trump struck a more inclusive tone, calling his proposal a “common-sense compromise both parties should embrace” and noting that his was a “compassionate response.”