WASHINGTON — Will the president sacrifice the start of a golfing vacation at his Florida resort to demand money for his border wall? Or will he find some way to claim he has “won†on the issue and fly south on schedule?
Or will he truly defy expectations by rejecting a temporary spending bill and going to Palm Beach anyway amid a partial government shutdown?
Americans will find out, one way or another, in this season’s finale of the Donald Trump presidency Friday.
On Thursday, Trump brought shutdown fever to a boil with a tweet threatening a veto of a two-month spending package — before appearing to talk himself down at a bill signing, where he said he wanted money for “border security†and a physical barrier but not making specific demands about either.
“I’ve made my position very clear. Any measure that funds the government must include border security. Has to,†Trump said in prepared remarks he delivered just before he signed this year’s farm bill into law. He added that money must also be there for some type of barrier. “We’ll see what we can do. Hopefully, that will all come together.â€
Notably, though, Trump did not name a dollar figure for what he would need to sign the bill. Nor did he state what project or projects would have to be funded.
The spending bill extension passed by the Senate late Wednesday continues funding at a $1.6 billion annual rate for refurbishing and upgrading the existing fence on about one-third of the U.S.-Mexico border — thus meeting both of Trump’s stated requirements.
Whether that’s enough for Trump’s hard-core base is unclear.
North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, a close Trump ally, said the word from residents in his district was “get it done†and that “we build it.â€
“What I heard very loudly and very clearly from my constituents is they don’t want us to just give up on this particular issue, and so it’s important that we fight on their behalf,†he said.
Trump earlier in the day wrote on Twitter that the Senate-passed bill was not good enough. “When I begrudgingly signed the Omnibus Bill, I was promised the Wall and Border Security by leadership. Would be done by end of year (NOW),†Trump wrote. “It didn’t happen! We foolishly fight for Border Security for other countries - but not for our beloved U.S.A. Not good!â€
Hours later, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Meadows and fellow Trump ally Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) met with Trump at the White House, after which Ryan said Trump made it clear he would not sign what the Senate passed.
“The president informed us that he will not sign the bill that came up from the Senate last evening because of his legitimate concerns for border security,†Ryan said afterward.
That, though, was not long before Trump seemed to soften his demands at the farm bill signing.
If Thursday’s spending bill crisis seemed familiar, that’s because it was a repeat of an episode from earlier in the year, when Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill to keep the entire government funded through the end of the budget year in September.
Trump’s budget director held a press briefing the day before the scheduled signing and assured reporters that Trump would sign the measure, even though it had no money for the border wall.
www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/turmp-shutdown-finale-border-wall_us_5c1c19ffe4b0407e9078d6ab
