Shutdown to last ‘as long as it takes’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday the partial government shutdown will last “as long as it takes” as closures entered a 12th day over his demands for billions of dollars from Congress to build a border wall with Mexico.
“Could be a long time or could be quickly,” Trump said during lengthy comments at a Cabinet meeting at the White House, his first public appearance of the new year.
The president said his Homeland Security officials will “make a plea” for the border wall during a briefing for congressional leaders later Wednesday at the White House.
But Trump also rejected his own administration’s offer to accept $2.5 billion for the wall.
That offer was made when Vice-President Mike Pence and other top officials met with Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer at the start of the shutdown.
Instead, Trump repeatedly pushed for the $5.6 billion he has demanded.
Trump made his case ahead of the afternoon session with Democratic and Republican leaders about the migrants arriving at the border in recent days.
He said the current border is “like a sieve.”
“If they knew they couldn’t come through, they wouldn’t even start,” Trump said at the meeting.
The meeting came as the shutdown dragged through its second week.
Trump complained that he had been “lonely” at the White House during the holiday break, having skipped his getaway to Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
He claimed his only companions were the “machine-gunners,” referring to security personnel, and “they don’t wave, they don’t smile.”