TRUMP STORMS OUT OF BORDER WALL TALKS
‘A total waste of time. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!’ he tweeted
PRESIDENT Donald Trump said “bye-bye” and stormed out of negotiations on Wednesday on funding a United StatesMexico border wall when Democratic opponents refused to agree to the project.
“A total waste of time,” Trump tweeted about his White House meeting with top Democratic congressional leaders. “I said bye-bye, nothing else works!”
Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, told journalists that Trump “sort of slammed the table”, then “got up and walked out”.
“Again, we saw a temper tantrum because he couldn’t get his way,” Schumer said.
Although the two sides agreed that the meeting ended abruptly, they argued over who to blame.
According to Trump’s supporters at the meeting, he asked Democratic leaders if they would agree to fund his wall project in exchange for him ending a painful shutdown of swaths of government, which he has instigated in retaliation for the standoff.
The Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, “raised her hand and said no, not at all”, said Kevin McCarthy, the senior Republican in the House, who was present.
“We heard once again that Democratic leaders are unwilling to even negotiate,” Vice-President Mike Pence said, insisting that Trump came in good faith.
“The president walked into the room and passed out candy. I don’t recall him ever raising his voice or slamming his hand.”
Trump wants US$5.7 billion (RM23.3 billion) to fund a wall he said was needed to keep out dangerous illegal immigrants, drug dealers and people smugglers from Mexico.
Democrats said the wall would have little impact on real border problems and that Trump’s tough approach had created a humanitarian crisis among vulnerable, unthreatening migrants.
Trump’s main lever to exert pressure on Congress has been to refuse signing spending bills that cover large areas of government. As a result, some 800,000 federal employees and many more contractors have been without pay for almost three weeks.
Democrats insisted that they would not lift their opposition to the wall project, and believed Americans would tire of the shutdown chaos and blame Trump.
But Trump had indicated on Wednesday on a visit to Republican allies in Congress that he would continue to play hardball.
“Whatever it takes,” he told journalists, when asked how long the shutdown could continue.
Earlier at the White House, Trump told journalists that if he cannot get his way, he could declare a national emergency, a measure that allows him to bypass Congress and take the wall funds he needs from the military.
“I think we might work a deal, and if we don’t, we might go that route,” he said, insisting that he had the “absolute right” to declare an emergency, despite warnings in Congress that this could be seen as serious presidential overreach.