Trump floats backup plan if Congress rejects $5B for border wall
President Trump on Tuesday floated a potential backup plan to secure the border if he does not receive the $5 billion he requested from Congress for his border wall, a sign he might not force a government shutdown over the contentious issue.
Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post that he could opt to keep U.S. troops at the southwest border to continue laying razor wire and installing fencing if Congress does not fully fund his wall. The current border mission is set to end Dec. 15, eight days after some government funding is set to lapse.
“We need Democrat votes to have a wall,” Trump said. “Now, if we don’t get it, will I get it done another way? I might get it done another way. There are other potential ways that I can do it. You saw what we did with the military, with the barbed wire and the fencing, and various other things.”{mosads}
Trump’s comments come as members of Congress are facing pressure to come up with a funding plan. The president recently told House and Senate leaders he would not budge from his $5 billion demand for the wall and has previously threatened to trigger a partial shutdown if he does not receive the money.
The president on Tuesday also argued that images from an area near the San Ysidro border crossing to Southern California, where U.S. border agents fired tear gas at migrants who tried to cross into the country from Mexico, were bad politically for Democrats.
The incident was the latest high-profile controversy over immigration under Trump, who has faced criticism over the troop deployment as well as a new policy designed to limit asylum claims that was blocked by a federal judge.
“We desperately need a wall,” Trump told the Post. “I think that’s been shown better than ever in the last short period of two weeks. I see the Democrats are going to want to do something. They understand, too. Those pictures are very bad for the Democrats.”
The lame-duck session of Congress could mark Trump’s last chance to obtain funding for his border wall, a central promise of his 2016 campaign. Democrats will take control of the House in January and they vociferously oppose the president’s plan for a new wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
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