The partial government shutdown has been in full force for almost three weeks now as Congress continues to refuse to bow to U.S. President Donald Trump’s demands for a $5 billion piggy bank to fund the building of his long-promised border wall.
Almost 1 million government employees have been affected by the shutdown, and numerous agencies have been severely affected. In the meantime, the administration has been holding negotiations to try and get the funding they want for the wall. However, according to Chuck Schumer, those talks haven’t exactly been going swimmingly.
Speaking shortly after Trump’s address on Tuesday night, Schumer told the media that the president had thrown what can only be described as a toddler-like temper tantrum during meetings to discuss funding. CBS News shared the footage of Schumer’s speech to Twitter.
Schumer started by claiming that Trump had refused to re-open government before he gets the funding, using the words, “if I open up the government, you won’t do what I want.” The senator then added that it was only a few minutes later that Trump has “sort of slammed the table,” and that the president had called the meeting a “waste of his time” and stormed out of the room when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she did not agree with the wall.
Schumer says President Trump “slammed the table,” walked out of a meeting and called it “a waste of time” after Nancy Pelosi said she wouldn’t agree to his border wall https://t.co/jKtBu6rkzC pic.twitter.com/YtbrJi5cob
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 9, 2019
This speech by Schumer shows no sign of the shutdown coming to an end any time soon, as the president has already threatened that he is prepared to allow the shutdown to continue for months or years until he gets what he wants.
Shortly after the shutdown was triggered right before Christmas, Trump apparently lowered his demand from the original $5 billion request, but the amount was never made public. What is known is that it was definitely still more than the $1.3 billion Congress was prepared to offer him.
On Wednesday, Trump admitted that the wall is a “medieval” measure, according to CBS News , but one that he firmly believes will work to achieve the goals he’s aiming for of keeping immigrants out of the country from the south.
The president has also claimed that some 800,000 federal employees who have been forced to either work without pay or go on furlough are “happy” about the shutdown.
“They’re all going to get their money and I think they’re going to be happy… you take a look at social media, so many of those people are saying it’s very hard for me, it’s very hard for my family, but Mr. President you’re doing the right thing,” Trump said.
