Standoff with Congress likely over president’s

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders are pushing back against President Trump’s threat to shut down the government if they don’t fund his border wall, setting up another likely standoff between the White House and Capitol Hill.

“If we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall,” Trump said Tuesday night during a rally in Phoenix, setting up a fight with key Republicans who have voiced opposition to the cost and logistical challenges the wall poses, as well as with the Democratic congressional caucus.

The remark comes amid reportedly heightened tensions between Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (RKy.). They have not spoken since an Aug. 9 phone call that devolved into an expletiveladen shouting match, according to a New York Times report, which said McConnell privately questioned whether Trump could salvage his administration after a string of highprofile controversies.

Yesterday both McConnell and Trump’s spokeswoman played down the divisions.

“The president and I, and our teams, have been and continue to be in regular contact about our shared goals,” McConnell said in statement yesterday. He listed a host of priorities, including tax reform, infrastructure, addressing the debt ceiling and keeping the government funded — but omitted the border wall, a subtle sign to the president that he doesn’t intend to let government funding lapse over the issue.

The White House is holding firm on the wall, and said Trump and McConnell have plans to meet and work together next month.

“President Donald J. Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell remain united on many shared priorities, including middle class tax relief, strengthening the military, constructing a southern border wall, and other important issues,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.

She told reporters later, “This is something the president campaigned on. He ran on it. He won on it. He’s going to make sure there’s definite plans for it to get built. The president has made no secret that this is a priority for him . ... The president’s committed to making sure it happens.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan also pushed back on Trump’s shutdown threat.

“I don’t think anyone’s interested in having a shutdown,” Ryan told reporters yesterday. “I don’t think it’s in our interests to do so while we work on doing what we actually said we would do, what we’ve done already in the House and we need to do, which is to control our border.”

Meanwhile, in a measured address to military veterans in Reno, Nev., yesterday, Trump called for unity — just hours after his blistering speech in Phoenix where he accused the media of criticizing his response to the deadly clash at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., as a way to attack Trump supporters.

“It is time to heal the wounds that have divided us, and to seek a new unity based on the common values that unite us,” Trump said yesterday at the American Legion’s 99th National Convention.

The White House also has already prepared paperwork to pardon former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of failing to obey a court order to stop racially profiling people suspected of being illegal immigrants, CNN reported yesterday.