Trump says he is prepared to keep Government shut for months or even years
4872 Mins Read
As a partial US government shutdown hit the two-week mark, Donald Trump told congressional leaders at the White House on Friday that he was prepared for it to last months or even years.
“Absolutely I said that,” said Trump during a Rose Garden press conference, when asked if a statement made by Senator Chuck Schumer, that the White House was prepared to continue the shutdown indefinitely, was correct.
Meanwhile President Trump raised the possibility on Friday of declaring a national emergency to allow him to build a wall along the southwest border without congressional approval, hours after Department of Homeland Security officials requested additional support to erect temporary barriers between the United States and Mexico.
Mr. Trump’s comments followed a contentious meeting with Democratic leaders at the White House. It failed to produce a deal to end the two-week partial shutdown of the federal government, a funding lapse that began with the president’s insistence that Congress allocate $5.6 billion for the wall.
“We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Rose Garden when asked about an emergency declaration, NYT reports.
The Guardian reports that earlier “Trump faces a divided government with Democrats newly in control of the House of Representatives. Democratic leaders emerged from the meeting reporting that the political logjam had not been cleared and the president had said hewas prepared to close the government “for a very long time, even years” if there was no deal.”
In his press conference, Trump initially took an optimistic tone about talks, saying “we are all on the same path in terms of wanting to get government open”. He promptly changed his tone when faced with questions from reporters.
The president had invited leaders from both parties back to the White House just two days after a meeting on border security in the Situation Room did not resolve matters, and a day after Nancy Pelosi became speaker of the House and Democrats passed legislation to reopen the government.
