The president’s demand triggered a partial shutdown of the federal government that is now in its fifth day
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he was prepared to wait as long as it takes to get US$5 billion from taxpayers for his US-Mexico border wall, a demand that has triggered a partial shutdown of the federal government that is now in its fifth day.
“Whatever it takes,” he told reporters accompanying him Wednesday on an unannounced visit to troops deployed at a US air base in Iraq. “We’re going to have a wall. We’re going to have safety.”
Trump blamed the shutdown on Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who was expected to become speaker of the US House of Representatives on January 3.
“Nancy is calling the shots,” said the Republican president, suggesting that her opposition to his demand for wall funding had to do with Pelosi’s need for votes to become speaker.
Pelosi largely locked up the speakership weeks ago.
“The American public is demanding a wall,” Trump said while on the ground at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq, his first visit to a conflict zone as president.
During a televised December 11 meeting with Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, Trump had said he would be “proud to shut down the government for border security” but has since tried to shift the blame to Democrats.
