“We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with,” Trump said on Twitter. “Hard to believe there was a Congress & President who would approve!”
With 800,000 federal employees left in limbo, Trump seemed to be embracing the stalled state of play. The White House sought to play up a divide between Democratic leaders, whose aides said it did not exist.
Democrats sought to project that Trump had no clear route to funding the government without capitulating. “He has two options: caving right now or caving later,” said Brian Fallon, a former spokesman for Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader.
Trump’s new chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, tried to paint incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as responsible for the impasse by implying Schumer was willing to negotiate but she was not. “My gut was that he was really interested in doing a deal and coming to some sort of compromise,” Mulvaney said Friday on “Fox & Friends,” describing a meeting between Schumer and Vice President Mike Pence last weekend to discuss border security funding.
In their meeting, Mulvaney and Pence offered Democrats a deal that would have allocated $2.5 billion for border security, including new fencing, and $400 million for other immigration measures. But Schumer demurred, encouraging the vice president to accept the $1.3 billion that Republicans and Democrats in Congress had already agreed upon.
Senior aides to both Pelosi and Schumer dismissed Mulvaney’s suggestion they were in disagreement.
A spokesman for Pelosi noted the White House had made no formal outreach to Pelosi since Dec. 11, when she and Schumer met with the president.
Trump also reiterated his threat to cut off aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador as punishment to countries he claimed on Twitter “are doing nothing for the United States but taking our money.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.