President Trump is holding another one of his patented press conferences. The media, of course, is eating up every minute of it and one has to admit that Trump is by far the most open and accessible leader we have ever had.
Trump and Chuck and Nancy held a long meeting today and the dynamic duo left dejected – they thought Trump would cave on the wall but instead, he shocked them with an impressive show of leverage.
Trump said he could keep the shutdown going for years, if needed, and turned down Pelosi’s sneak attempt to pass specific bills to keep specific parts of the government open.
Trump said it is all or nothing before dropping the hammer – Trump informed them he could simply declare a national emergency and get the wall funded that way.
From ABC: President Donald Trump is seriously considering potential options to circumvent Congress, including declaring a national emergency, to reprogram funds from the Department of Defense and elsewhere to help pay for parts of his desired border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to multiple sources familiar with the ongoing discussions.
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Sources tell ABC News the discussions are still on the “working level” adding that there’s a range of legal mechanisms that are being considered before such a decision is announced.
The discussions have intensified as the president is now 14 days into a partial government shutdown, facing newly empowered House Democrats who are refusing to budge issue of wall funding.
“We are not doing a wall,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday, calling the proposed structure an “immorality.”
The administration is holding meetings Friday, through the weekend and into next week, to continue discussions on next steps, according to officials.
It was not immediately clear who would be part of those meetings.
On Friday, the president said he had had a “productive” and “very, very good meeting” after talks with top Democrats and other congressional leaders at the White House in an effort to end the partial government shutdown now heading into the third week.
Just minutes earlier, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters outside the White House that Trump told lawmakers in their nearly hour and a half meeting that he is prepared to keep the government closed “for a very long period of time, months or even years.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the meeting “contentious.”
