Article snippet: MORE delivered the first Oval Office address of his White House tenure on Tuesday evening, amid an ongoing shutdown battle with Democrats over his proposed border wall. What were the main takeaways? Trump did not shift the debate Some people close to the president had argued that a primetime televised address would be one way — perhaps the only way — to change the contours of the debate over the shutdown. That view implicitly recognizes that the White House is on the back foot, with little leverage and with Democrats feeling no serious pressure to compromise. Nothing Trump said changed that. Instead, he mostly rehashed arguments that he has already made on Twitter or at recent news conferences. He argued that the situation on the southern border had reached crisis proportions and alleged that Democrats were unconcerned about border security. Trump also made his share of contentious claims, such as saying that he was willing to accept a steel barrier rather than a concrete wall “at the request of Democrats.” No prominent Democrat has publicly supported a new physical barrier made of either steel or concrete. “This situation could be solved in a 45-minute meeting,” Trump said at one point during his address, referring to the shutdown. That may be true in abstract terms but it fails to recognize the political reality right now. The landscape is difficult for the president. It remains so. To that extent, this was a swing and a miss by the president. No declaratio... Link to the full article to read more