Trump and Democrats fail to strike deal in border security meeting, extending government shutdown for ‘days or weeks’

Democrats say that their Republican counterparts are ‘feeling the heat’

Chuck Schumer (centre) and Nancy Pelosi speak to reporters after the meeting (EPA)

Almost a fortnight after it began, a senior Republican leader has warned that it could take “weeks” to reach a deal to end a partial government shutdown after a closed door meeting between Donald Trump and the Congressional leadership in the White House Situation Room.

“I don’t think any particular progress was made today”, said Mitch McConnell, the party’s Senate majority leader, although he insisted that there had been a “good discussion on border security issue”.

He added: “We talked about all aspects of it and it was a civil discussion and we are hopeful that somehow in the coming days or weeks we will be able to reach an agreement.”

Others were less positive about ending the stalemate which has forced hundreds of thousands of federal workers to work without pay. They will be reimbursed when an agreement is reached.

Both Republican and Democrat leaders were quick to blame each other for the impasse.

“On our last meeting the president said ‘I am going to shut the government down’. They are now feeling the heat,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said shortly after the meeting.

“It is not helping the president, it is not helping the Republicans, to be the owners of this shutdown. Today we gave them an opportunity to get out of that, and open up the government as we debate border security. And to say to them – because he says”.

Incoming Democratic speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi also suggested that Mr Trump was ignoring her party’s attempts to end the showdown: “We’re asking the president to open up the government,” she said. ”We are giving him a Republican path to do it. Why would he not do that?”

Republicans leaving the meeting noted that Mr Trump had asked for leadership to return later this week and pointed to an incident on America’s southern border when tear gas was reportedly fired at 150 migrants on New Year’s Day, something they said justified Mr Trump’s refusal to back down from his request for $5.6bn (£4.4bn) to build a border wall.

“We do have a crisis on the border right now. We had a violent mob rush yesterday – we had a challenge there,” said senior Republican Kevin McCarthy. “The president has asked us to come back Friday, after the [House] leadership races, to try to get this all done”.

He also accused Mr Schumer of interrupting a briefing from Department of Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

The US government has been partially shut down since 22 December, although the White House has previously indicated that they would not force a shutdown over border wall funding.

Mr Trump, who said during his last meeting with the Democratic leaders that he would take responsibility for any shutdown should it come, decided late in that week that he would not settle for less than the billions of dollars he has asked for in border wall funding.

Before the meeting Mr Trump claimed that he believed the Democrats – who have offered $1.3bn in funding for border security – were using the shutdown for political gains.

He told a cabinet meeting that the sum he was requesting for the wall was little more than a “rounding error” compared to the size of the US federal budget.

“The United States needs a physical barrier,” he said.

In an earlier tweet he again blamed his political rivals, writing: “We are in a shutdown because Democrats refuse to fund border security.”

When Congressional leaders return to the White House later this week Democrats will be in control of the US Congress, having triumphed over their rivals in the US midterm elections.

Democratic leadership has indicated that they plan on bringing forward bills to fund the government, including a separate short-term spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security so that it can be separated from broader funding issues in the US.