The rift between President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over construction of a border wall appeared to widen on Thursday as negotiators work to strike a deal ahead of a mid-month deadline.
It was a return to the barbed back-and-forth that colored the month-long standoff that ended last week when Trump agreed to reopen the government without securing the border money wall.
He gave lawmakers three weeks to reach an agreement on a long-term government funding plan that he insists must include border wall funding.
Pelosi adopted a firm stance against that demand Thursday.
«There’s not going to be any wall money in the legislation,» she said during a weekly news conference.
She added that other aspects of border security involving infrastructure and technology are part of the negotiations.
In an appearance in the Oval Office, Trump offered a deeply pessimistic view of the prospects of an agreement he could approve.
«I’m not waiting for this committee and I’ve told a lot of people I don’t expect much coming out of the committee because I keep hearing words that ‘We’ll give you what you want but we won’t give you a wall.’ And the problem is, if they don’t give us a wall, it doesn’t work,» Trump said. He was appearing with Cabinet members and executives to sign an executive order meant to spur manufacturing.
In a set of morning tweets, Trump insisted his long-promised border wall would come to fruition one way or another, blaming «political games» for delaying the inevitable.
«Lets just call them WALLS from now on and stop playing political games! A WALL is a WALL!» he tweeted.
Later, he wrote: «The Wall is getting done one way or the other!»
The messages came as Republican and Democratic negotiators begin talks on Capitol Hill over a government funding measure that Trump insists must include border wall funding.
