President Trump has yet to decide whether he’ll support a potential funding deal thrashed out by congressional negotiators Monday that would force him to accept much less wall funding than he said he wanted. Trump told reporters Tuesday that “I can’t say I’m happy, I can’t say I’m thrilled” with the deal as it stands. But the president added that he “wouldn’t want to see a shutdown.” “It’s not going to do the trick, but I’m adding things to it and when you add whatever I have to add, it’s all going to happen where we’re going to build a beautiful big strong wall,” he said. Negotiators agreed in principle to a deal that would allocate $1.375 billion to build 55 miles of new border barriers—far short of the $5.7 billion Trump has asked for. However, the agreement would also scrap the Democratic demand for a limit on the number of detentions of immigrants apprehended in the U.S.
To avoid another partial government shutdown at the end of the week, the potential deal would have to be written into legislation, pass both chambers of Congress and get Trump’s approval before Friday night. At his Monday night rally in El Paso, Texas, Trump showed no sign of relenting on his border-wall demands, saying: “Just so you know, we’re building the wall anyway... We’re setting the table, we’re doing whatever we have to do. The wall’s being built.”
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