Government shutdown: Trump says 'no substitute' for wall on Mexico border but backs away from declaring national emergency
President says he will 'never ever back down' in fight over border security
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has dismissed a proposal from a key ally in Congress that would end the longest US government shutdown in American history, declaring that he would "never ever back down" over border security..
Twenty-four days into the partial shut down, Mr Trump rejected the idea from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. The Senator had indicated he discussed the option of reopening the government temporarily as negotiations continue with Democrats over their refusal to sanction a demand from the president for $5.7bn to build a wall on the US-Mexico borer.
That idea had seen some support from Democrats, but the president declined to bite.
“I’m not interested,” Mr Trump said on Monday as he made his way to New Orleans, where he gave a speech to a farming convention. “I want it solved. I don’t want to just delay it. I want to get it solved”.
The comment came just hours after the president tweeted that he had been “waiting all weekend” to negotiate with congressional Democrats to reopen the government and that he believed an end could be negotiated in 15 minutes.
Having dismissed that option from Mr Graham while leaving the White House, Mr Trump used his speech in New Orleans to say there was “no substitute” for a physical barrier along the southern border with Mexico.
He also accused Democrats of playing politics in refusing to negotiate on the issue.
“They think if they stop me, it’ll be good for 2020,” Mr Trump said of Democrats in Congress. “We need that barrier. … If you don’t have that barrier there, there is not a thing you can do.”
However, with the shutdown having left 800,000 federal workers without pay, there are signs that Mr Trump is beginning to lose the battle for public opinion.
A Quinnipiac University poll released on Monday found that 63 per cent of voters agree with the long-standing Democrat proposal to reopen parts of the government that do not involve border security, with 30 per cent opposed.
The same poll found 63 per cent of respondents also oppose using the shutdown to force wall funding, with 32 per cent supporting Mr Trump's stance.
The poll also found that 56 percent of American voters blame Mr Trump and Republicans in Congress for the partial shutdown.
To see how the day unfolded follow our liveblog below
Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load
In typical fashion, Mr Trump called former FBI and Justice Department officials "known scoundrels" and "dirty cops" without providing any evidence at all.
Speaking from the South Lawn before departing the White House for New Orleans, Mr was reacting to a New York Times report that law enforcement officials began investigating, in 2017, whether Mr Trump had been working on behalf of Russia against US interests.
While many federal workers missed their first pay cheque on Friday, the US Coast Guard confirms that sailors will miss their first batch of pay since the shutdown tomorrow 15 January.
As the president heads to New Orleans amid a government shutdown, his controversial tweet from last night attacking 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren has been causing a stir online. Here's more:
Before departing for his trip to New Orleans, the president suggested to reporters that he was receiving phone calls from Democrats saying they allegedly agreed with his reasoning behind closing the government to fight for $5.7bn to go towards his campaign promise of a US-Mexico border wall.
Several reporters have noted this is likely false, as the Democratic Party has long opposed both a border wall and a government shutdown.
White House sources have reported the president lashed out at his new chief of staff after Mick Mulvaney reportedly attempted to work out a compromise with Democrats to reopen the government.
"You just f***** it all up, Mick," Donald Trump said in the White House Situation Room earlier this month during a meeting with his advisers on the government shutdown, according to Axios.
An unnamed White House official responded with this: "This is an exaggerated account of the exchange that doesn't reflect the good relationship Mulvaney has built over the last two years with the president."
Mr Mulvaney was reportedly attempting to get Democratic leaders to raise the figure they were willing to support for funding towards a border wall from $1.3bn to a range closer to $5.7bn.
Elizabeth Warren, one of the first major 2020 candidates to throw her name in the growing Democratic pool of lawmakers hoping to challenge Donald Trump, tweeted the following message about the government shutdown:
“24 days into the #TrumpShutdown and over 800,000 federal employees have already missed 1 paycheck.”
“How many more before Republicans stop crushing working families and re-open the government?” she continued. “Time to end this.”
Hillary Clinton has tweeted about the explosive news surrounding Donald Trump’s meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid his federal government’s ongoing shutdown. News broke the president had sought to restrict what information was provided to his own White House after his meetings with Mr Putin.
“Like I said: A puppet,” the former 2016 Democratic presidential candidate wrote, sharing a video in which she called Mr Trump the term during a debate.
To put the government shutdown in context:
The shutdown is only partial, as the majority of the federal government (75 per cent) has been funded through September.
There are nine federal departments impacted by the shutdown, while six departments are not.
Seven bills stand in the way of reopening the federal government in full, however Donald Trump has refused to sign on with them unless his demands for $5.7bn to go towards a US-Mexico border wall are included.
A senior White House official has penned an Op-Ed for the conservative news site Daily Caller in which they urge Donald Trump to continue the government shutdown “till the government is changed, and can never return to its previous form.”
“Due to the lack of funding, many federal agencies are now operating more effectively from the top down on a fraction of their workforce, with only select essential personnel serving national security tasks,” the author claims. “One might think this is how government should function, but bureaucracies operate from the bottom up, a collective of self-generated ideas. Ideas become initiatives, formalize into offices, they seek funds from Congress and become bureaus or sub-agencies, and maybe one day grow to be their own independent agency, like ours. The nature of a big administrative bureaucracy is to grow to serve itself. I watch it and fight it daily.”
Read the full Op-Ed here.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments