Donald Trump: ‘Too Early to Tell’ Whether Shutdown will Happen

President Donald Trump told reporters that it was “too early” to say whether or not there would be a government shutdown on Friday over wall funding.

“We’ll see what happens, it’s too early to tell,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday at the White House. “We need border security.”

Despite initially threatening to shut down the government if Democrats fail to support $5 billion in wall funding, the White House is sending signals that they might back down from a funding ultimatum.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders floated the option of finding “pots of money” elsewhere in the budget to fund the wall.

“We’re looking to those individuals to find out those specific pots of money that can be used for that,” Sanders confirmed during a press briefing on Tuesday. She did not detail specific areas for possible funding sources.

The president commented on the funding battle after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the White House was showing some flexibility in the negotiations and told reporters that a shutdown would not occur.