U.S. PRESIDENT ADDS CONFUSION TO SHUTDOWN CONCERNS
Trump adds confusion to government shutdown concern
Injecting confusion into already perilous shutdown negotiations, President Donald Trump undercut his own administration’s stance by tweeting Thursday that a children’s health insurance program should not be part of a short-term budget agreement.
The president’s tweet came as Republicans and Democrats were scrambling to avert the shutdown, which could come at midnight Friday.
The administration had previously expressed support for GOPdrafted legislation that includes money for the popular children’s program for six years, a tactic aimed at winning some Democratic support for the bill.
The House was to vote later Thursday.
After Trump tweeted, aides from both parties expressed bafflement at exactly what he meant and why he took his position. It was the latest instance that has raised doubts in Washington about the president’s unpredictable approach to legislation, policy and political decisions.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the tweet, which said simply: “CHIP should be part of a long term solution, not a 30 Day, or short term, extension!”
Just Wednesday, the White House budget office sent Congress a letter expressing support for the overall bill and expressly wrote, “The Administration supports the bill’s multiyear funding extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).”
Federal financing for the program that serves nearly nine million children expired in October and several states are close to exhausting their money, and Congress has passed several short-term patches to keep their programs afloat.
Trump’s comments came amid a flurry of tweets Thursday. He also insisted his views on a border wall with Mexico have not evolved, pushing back against his own chief of staff’s comments to lawmakers.
Trump said on Twitter: “The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it.”
Some Democrats who met with White House chief of staff John Kelly on Wednesday say Kelly told them parts of the border don’t need a wall — and that Trump didn’t know that when making campaign promises.
Trump tweeted Thursday that some of the wall will be “see through,” and he wrote that the wall was never supposed to be built where there are natural barriers. He added that it “will be paid for, directly or indirectly, or through longer term reimbursement, by Mexico, which has a ridiculous $71 billion dollar trade surplus with the U.S.”
Kelly’s assertion that Trump’s views on immigration had evolved came as lawmakers try to reach accord on protecting hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation, a push the White House and Republicans say they would back, if it’s coupled with tough border security measures and other restrictions.
Trump tweeted Thursday, “If there is no Wall, there is no Deal!” He said the U.S. needs a wall “to help stop the massive inflow of drugs from Mexico, now rated the number one most dangerous country in the world.”
Kelly made the remarks about Trump and the wall Wednesday at a closed-door meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, participants said, and he made similar comments later on Fox News Channel.
Kelly said on Fox he told the caucus that “they all say things during the course of campaigns that may or may not be fully informed.” He said Trump has “very definitely changed his attitude” toward protecting the young immigrants, “and even the wall, once we briefed him.”
“So he has evolved in the way he’s looked at things,” Kelly said. “Campaign to governing are two different things and this president has been very, very flexible in terms of what is within the realms of the possible.”