SHUTDOWN SEEN AS UNLIKELY
Trump faced immediate words of caution from top Republicans, including Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio, who leads the National Republican Congressional Committee, which co-ordinates campaign efforts for House Republican candidates.
“I don’t think we’re going to shut down the government. You know, I think we’re going to make sure we keep the government open, but we’re going to get better policies on immigration,” Stivers said on ABC News’ This Week.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, told CBS News’ Face the Nation that he supports the president’s effort to pass conservative immigration policies but disagreed with his brinkmanship.
“I don’t like playing shutdown politics. I don’t think it’d be helpful,” Johnson said.
On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Democrats did not feel compelled to respond to Trump’s threat.
“Democrats want to work together in a bipartisan way when it comes to comprehensive immigration reform,” Luján said on ABC News, adding that “Democrats are standing strong when it comes to a comprehensive immigration reform conversation with the American people that is fair, that is tough.”
Trump’s declaration on Twitter surprised some lawmakers who have been eager to avoid a bruising funding fight and highlighted his intense desire to make progress on signature agenda items that have stalled.
The president has not received from Congress as much funding as he has requested for his proposed wall. Trump also has been advocating changes to immigration laws, including ending the visa lottery program as well as the practice of releasing from detention immigrants caught entering the country illegally if they agree to court hearings.
Trump met Wednesday with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and discussed the upcoming spending fight. The president signalled he was on board with McConnell and Ryan’s strategy to fund the government smoothly through smaller packages of spending bills that had been moving through the House and Senate, according to a source.
But in recent days, Trump has also spoken with several outside allies who have urged him to strike a tougher line on the border wall to rally his core voters in November, according to two people briefed on those discussions.