Donald Trump Says He Would Be OK With Second Government Shutdown If Border Wall Doesn’t Get Funding

On Sunday morning, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told reporters that Donald Trump is willing to undergo a second government shutdown should Congress refuse to fund his border wall. According to the Associated Press, should an agreement not be reached, the shutdown will resume on February 15.

Mulvaney spoke to both Face the Nation on CBS and Fox News Sunday regarding the very real possibility that a second government shutdown might be on the horizon. If that occurs, all the government agencies that have just been reopened will once again be shut down — leaving a lot of federal workers scrambling to survive without a paycheck.

“What he wants to do is fix this the way that things are supposed to get fixed with our government which is through legislation,” Mulvaney said during an interview.

“Keep in mind he’s willing to do whatever it takes to secure the border,” he said.

After an unprecedented 35-day federal shutdown that left 800,000 federal employees without work, Trump gave in and agreed to reopen the government — without any funding agreed in for his $5.7 billion border wall. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly said Congress will not finance a border wall or barrier wall, calling the move “immoral.”

While House Democrats have categorically refused to fund a border wall, which has been criticized for being expensive and unrealistic. Still, they’ve stated that they are more than willing to work with the president on improving border security. Democrats have said they would be in favor of investing in additional infrastructure for the area, and investing in additional technology to help keep the border safe.

Mulvaney argued this point, saying that Democrats have privately and publicly come forward to support Trump’s border. In fact, Mulvaney went on to say that part of the reason Trump agreed to end the shutdown was that Democrats felt they couldn’t break from their party’s stance while the government was still closed.

Mulvaney then went on to elaborate on the logistics of the wall itself, which he says will not stretch from coast to coast. According to the White House, there are 17 specific priority points where Trump wants to set up barriers in order to discourage illegal border crossings. Mulvaney estimates that the overall distance for Trump’s wall would be about 243 miles.

Meanwhile, Democrats are continuing to focus on alternate forms of border security. They continue to remain firm on the fact that they will not support the building of any sort of border wall or barrier.