Donald Trump liked to remind his supporters of the ingenuity of his plan to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it at his campaign rallies during the 2016 presidential elections. In fact, even early this year, Trump reiterated his belief that America’s neighbor will pay for the wall in some form because, well, that is what he wanted Mexicans to do.
“I believe Mexico will pay for the wall,” Trump said during a brief news conference at Camp David early this year, according to the Guardian .
“I have a very good relationship with Mexico. But yes, in some form, Mexico will pay for the wall.”
But now just 10 months into that promise, Trump is threatening to shut down the government if Congress doesn’t approve of his plan of spending nearly $5 billion for the border wall, reports Business Insider . Although Democrats, through Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, seemed to suggest that they would be willing to spend as much as $1.6 billion for Trump’s border wall — or “fencing” as Schumer likes to call it — Trump has insisted he wants the full amount or the government can risk a complete shutdown.
With lawmakers requiring to pass a spending bill somewhere in the vicinity of $312 billion to keep federal agencies funded by December 7, Trump told Politico that he believed it would be a “very good time to do a shutdown” if he cannot secure the funding for his campaign promise.
“I don’t do anything… just for political gain. But I will tell you, politically speaking, that issue is a total winner,” Trump said, before adding that the $5 billion he is looking for would only pay for the physical wall and that U.S. border security would need more funding in times to come. He referred to the confrontation between U.S. border authorities and migrants at the border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego, California, on Sunday in which four border patrol agents were reportedly hit by rocks, as a clear evidence of why the government needed to spend more on border security.
“People look at the border, they look at the rush to the police, they look at the rock throwers and really hurting three people, three very brave Border Patrol folks – I think that it’s a tremendous issue, but much more importantly, is really needed. So we have to have border security.”
Trump’s threats to impose a government shutdown, however, won’t be received without resistance, with lawmakers asking him to refrain from proposing such a solution.
I’m urging my Republican colleagues to push aside President Trump’s unreasonable border wall demands and work with us to fund our government and invest in middle class priorities.
A government shutdown is not the solution. https://t.co/7cnnWADDY4
— Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) November 28, 2018
