President Donald Trump remained resolute in his demands for border security funding on Wednesday, despite Democrats refusing to include $5 billion in government funding.
“No, we’re asking for 5.6 (billion),” he said to reporters at the White House, who asked if he would be willing to compromise on his funding demands to reopen the government. “The 5.6 billion is such a small number.”
The president commented on the ongoing partial government shutdown – which is now in its twelfth day – but said it was up to Democrats to come to the negotiating table.
“We’ll see … It could be a long time, or it could be quickly. Could be a long time. It’s too important a subject to walk away from,” Trump said when asked by reporters how long he expected the partial shutdown to last. “As long as it takes.”
The president commented to reporters during a meeting with his cabinet on Wednesday. Later in the day, he is expected to host Congressional leaders at the White House Situation Room to give them a briefing on the border security crisis.
“This isn’t just a border; this is national security. This is health and wellness,” Trump added. “This is everything.”
He accused Democrats of blocking funding for border security for political reasons, pointing to the upcoming 2020 presidential campaign.
“We are in a shutdown because Democrats refuse to fund border security,” Trump said.
Trump focused his interest on a wall, noting that drones and technology for the border were not enough.
“The wheel, the wall — there are some things that never get old. It’s never going to change. The wall is your number-one point of security,” he said.
Trump spent the entire Christmas and New Year’s Eve holiday at the White House, except for a brief trip to visit American troops in Iraq and Germany.
He commented that he was “all alone” in the White House, despite his willingness to meet with Democrats and make a deal over Christmas.
I was here on Christmas evening. I was all by myself in the White House. It’s a big, big house. Except for all the guys out on the lawn with machine guns. Nicest machine guns I’ve ever seen,” Trump said. “I was waving to them. I never saw so many guys with machine guns in my life … these are great people. And they don’t play games. They don’t, like, wave. They don’t even smile.”