Trump blames Dems for shutdown, children’s deaths

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump fired Twitter barbs at Democrats on Saturday as talks to end a weeklong partial government shutdown remained at a stalemate.

As the disruption in federal services and public employees’ pay appeared set to continue into the new year, there were no signs of any substantive negotiation.

Trump tweeted Saturday that he was “in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal on Border Security.”

As he called for Democrats to negotiate on a border wall, Trump tweeted that the recent deaths of two migrant children in Border Patrol custody were “strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally.”

Trump earlier had threatened anew to close the border with Mexico to press Congress to fund a wall. Democrats are vowing to pass legislation restoring the government when they take control of the House on Thursday.

Trump also moved to defend himself from criticism that he couldn’t deliver on the wall while the GOP controlled the House and Senate.

“For those that naively ask why didn’t the Republicans get approval to build the Wall over the last year, it is because IN THE SENATE WE NEED 10 DEMOCRAT VOTES, and they will gives us “NONE” for Border Security!,” he tweeted. “Now we have to do it the hard way, with a Shutdown.”

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency, which had the money to function a week longer than some other federal agencies, implemented its shutdown plan Friday night.

EPA spokeswoman Molly Block said many of the agency’s 14,000 employees were being furloughed, while disaster-response teams and certain other employees deemed essential would stay on the job.