We’re building the wall anyway, says Trump after deal for quarter of its cost
PRESIDENT Donald Trump today vowed that his Mexico border wall “will be built anyway”, after lawmakers agreed a tentative agreement that only provides a quarter of the funding he has demanded.
The deal struck last night between Democrats and Republicans to avoid a second government shutdown includes $1.4 billion (£1.09 billion) for the wall. That would pay for a barrier stretching about 55 miles. Mr Trump had wanted $5.7 billion for a 215-mile wall.
Despite cross-party agreement, the budget deal to fund America’s government will be doomed without the president’s support.
Speaking at a rally in El Paso, Texas, shortly after news of the deal broke, Mr Trump refused to be drawn on whether he would back it.
“They say that progress is being made. Just so you know. Just now, just now,” he said. “I said wait a minute, I gotta take care of my people from Texas. I got to go. I don’t even want to hear about it.”
“Just so you know, we’re building the wall anyway,” he added, saying he would “never sign a bill that forces the mass release of violent criminals”.
He was referring to a sticking point in the negotiations on Capitol Hill over Democrat demands to restrict the number of illegal immigrants being held in US detention centres.
The deal, reached just hours after negotiators admitted they feared a new shutdown was looming, would ensure the government is funded until September, the end of the fiscal year.
“We reached an agreement in principle,” said Senate appropriations committee chairman Richard Shelby. “We got an agreement on all of it.”
“The spectre of another shutdown this close, what brought us back together I thought tonight was we didn’t want that to happen,” he added, noting that they had until midnight on Friday to find a compromise.
The bill still needs to be passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by the president. The previous shutdown sparked by the row over funding border security lasted for a record 35 days from December 22 to January 25 and cost the US an estimated $11 billion (£8.5 billion).
A White House official told CNN the administration was keeping its options open, including reallocating funds from elsewhere to build t h e wa l l . During his rally in Texas, Mr Trump to o k a p o t s h o t a t u p -a n d- c o mi n g Democrat politician Beto O’Rourke. He said that Mr O’Rourke, who was speaking at a rival anti-border wall rally in El Paso, was “a young man who has got very little going for himself except he’s got a great first name”.