President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal Sunday that another government shutdown is “certainly an option” in three weeks if Democrats still won’t agree to a deal that funds a U.S.-Mexico border wall. The President also said he is highly doubtful Democrats will be willing to commit to such funding.
“I personally think it’s less than 50-50, but you have a lot of very good people on that board,” Trump said.
Trump signed a resolution Friday that temporarily ended the recent government shutdown, which was the longest in U.S. history.
The President said he probably wouldn’t accept a deal that does not include the $5.7 billion in border-wall funding that he is seeking.
When asked if he would accept a deal without the funding, Trump replied, “I doubt it. I have to do it right.”
Trump’s acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney has expressed similar sentiments.
Trump is ready to shut down government again over border wall, says chief of staff. https://t.co/nmtVBuF7gL
— Slate (@Slate) January 27, 2019
There is also the issue of potentially getting wall funding in exchange for DACA.
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“Trump also said he doubts he would accept a deal that traded the border wall funding in exchange for citizenship for a group of immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children, known as Dreamers,” The Hill reports:
A group of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle has been tasked with hammering out a deal that addresses the polarizing issues of immigration and border security. The group of 17 lawmakers is led by House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and will meet for the first time this week.
“I’m going to remain optimistic,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the group, said on Sunday, according to the Journal. “If you look at the impetus from both sides, the shutdown was a miserable experience for everybody.”
“There’s a lot that tells me we may not get there, but there’s more that’s telling me we have the urge to demonstrate we can reach a consensus or we’re signaling to the American people there’s going to be two years of this [fighting] all of the time,” Capito said.
President Trump has said that if Democrats don’t agree to a deal that features border funding, he might consider pushing the issue by declaring a national emergency.