You might think the CNN headline says it all: "State Department cancels border security conference due to shutdown over border security." But actually, it gets better … or worse, depending whether you care more about summing up Donald Trump’s shutdown in a single headline or stopping violence.
The conference in question is the 16th International Export Control and Border Security Conference. The “international export control” part of that is important, because while Trump has shut down the government because of the major border security threat of frightened families fleeing violence and poverty, this conference is—or was supposed to be—about “the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and destabilizing accumulations and irresponsible transfers of conventional weapons.”
So the shutdown over the border security issue of diaper-wearing children and their parents showing up to ask for asylum is getting in the way of international efforts to crack down on weapons of mass destruction crossing borders. Just great.