TRUMP: ‘I CAN’T TELL YOU WHEN’ GOVERNMENT WILL REOPEN

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that parts of the federal government will stay closed until Democrats agree to put up more walls along the U.S.-Mexico border. He said he’s open to calling the wall something else as long as he ends up with an actual wall.

In a Christmas Day appearance in the Oval Office, Trump issued a lengthy defence of his desire for a wall. In a nod to the political stakes he’s facing, Trump said he wants the wall by “election time” in 2020.

The border wall was a central component of Trump’s presidential campaign.

“I can’t tell you when the government’s going to be open. I can tell you it’s not going to be open until we have a wall or fence, whatever they’d like to call it,” Trump said.