Trump blames shutdown on Democrats

US president Donald Trump fired Twitter barbs at Democrats as talks to end a week-long partial government shutdown remained at a stalemate.

Mr Trump was cooped up in the White House after cancelling a vacation to his private Florida club.

As the disruption in federal services and public employees’ pay appeared set to continue into the new year, there were no signs of any substantive negotiation between the blame-trading parties.

He held out for billions in federal funds for a border wall between the US and Mexico, which Democrats have said they were intent on blocking.

He tweeted on Saturday that he was “in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal on Border Security”.

But there has been little direct contact between the sides during the stalemate, and Mr Trump did not ask Republicans, who hold a monopoly on power in Washington for another five days, to keep Congress in session.

As he called for Democrats to negotiate on the wall, the president brushed off criticism that his administration bore any responsibility for the recent deaths of two migrant children in Border Patrol custody.

He claimed the deaths were “strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally”.

Picture: RS Brown Photography. Rebecca Rose White, formerly Broughty Ferry, and David John Rose, formerly Comrie, both now London, were married at One Whitehall Place, London.