Trump says he’s not thrilled with deal on border security
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is “unhappy” with a hard-won agreement to prevent a new government shutdown and finance construction of more barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, but he didn’t say whether he would sign the measure as Republican congressional leaders swung behind the proposed deal, selling it as a necessary compromise.
“I can’t say I’m happy. I can’t say I’m thrilled,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting.
He said he needs to look further at the agreement, which would grant far less than the $5.7 billion US he wants for a long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. But one way or another, “the wall’s getting built, he said, raising the likelihood he’d be “supplementing things” and moving resources from “far less ... important areas” in the government.
Trump said he didn’t believe there would be another shutdown, which could have hit hundreds of thousands of federal workers again this weekend. “Everything” is on the table, he said at the White House, but “we certainly don’t want to see a shutdown.”
Lawmakers tentatively agreed Monday night to a deal that would provide nearly $1.4 billion for border barriers, according to congressional aides. The huge funding measure, which combines seven spending bills into one, would run through the fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.
Details might not be released until today, but the pact came in time to alleviate any threat of a second partial government shutdown this weekend.
Negotiators said the deal is pretty much the same as one Trump could have gotten in December, before his resistance led to the first shutdown. Aides revealed details under condition of anonymity because the agreement is tentative.
Top Republicans Mitch McConnell in the Senate and Kevin McCarthy in the House both claimed victory, crowing about Democratic concessions on new border barriers and a latestage battle over the ability of federal authorities to arrest and detain immigrants living illegally in the U.S.
“You’ve got to remember where Nancy Pelosi was. She has said: ‘No money for a wall.’ That’s not the case,” McCarthy said on CNBC Tuesday morning. “The Democrats have now agreed to more than 55 miles of new barrier.”
And Trump said in regard to transferring other funds: “We have a lot of money in this country and we’re using some of that money — a small percentage of that money — to build the wall, which we desperately need.”
Trump appeared to be referring to a White House plan to supplement the deal by using executive action to divert additional money from the federal budget for wall construction — a move that could face challenges in Congress or the courts. The administration has been laying the groundwork for Trump to declare a national emergency or invoke other executive authority to tap funds including money set aside for military construction and disaster relief.