He’s all alone and isolated, but Trump still wants wall

I...just gave out a 115mile-long contract for another large section of the Wall in Texas. We are already building

DONALD TRUMP, US president

WASHINGTON : President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the partial government shutdown, on its fourth day now, will continue till he gets funding for a wall along the US border with Mexico.

“I can’t tell you when the government is going to reopen…. (not until) we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it. I’ll call it whatever they want,” he told reporters after the annual Christmas tradition of calling US troops deployed abroad.

Democrats have refused to allow any money for the wall, for which Trump has demanded $5 billion, but are willing to give him $1.3 billion for border security.

On Christmas Eve, the president complained, “I am all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security.” On Tuesday, Trump said he wanted to be with his family for Christmas, who were in Florida but “thought it would be wrong for me to be with my family”.

“I just didn’t want to go down and be there when other people are hurting...but it’s gonna all work out,” he added.

Negotiations are likely to resume on Thursday when the Congress convenes after the Christmas break.

But Democrats have shown no inclination to relent. “Different people from the same White House are saying different things about what the president would accept or not accept,” top Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement.