Donald Trump threatens to close Mexico border ‘entirely’ if he doesn’t get funding for his wall
- US President Donald Trump claimed the US loses ‘soooo much money on Trade with Mexico … I would consider closing the Southern Border’
- In a series of tweets, Trump also threatened to cut off all US aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
US President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to “entirely” close the US southern border if Congress does not agree to provide US$5 billion in taxpayer funds for his promised wall along the border with Mexico.
With large parts of the federal government shut down for lack of funding in a dispute over the proposed wall and Congress adjourned until next week, Trump was in the White House firing off angry tweets.
“We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with,” Trump said.
“Either we build (finish) the Wall or we close the Border,” he added.
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The Republican president also reiterated threats to cut off all US aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, which he said were not doing anything to stop the flow of migrants toward the United States.
He said the US lost “soooo much money on Trade with Mexico under NAFTA, over 75 Billion Dollars a year (not including Drug Money which would be many times that amount), that I would consider closing the Southern Border a ‘profit making operation’.”
A spokesman for US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Thursday that Republicans and Democrats were still very far apart in efforts to resolve the shutdown, which started on Saturday.
Democrats have offered support for US$1.3 billion in funding for general border security, but have long opposed the building of a wall.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday, 47 per cent of Americans hold Trump responsible for the shutdown, while 33 per cent blame Democrats in Congress.
In television interviews on Friday, Trump aides sought to put the blame for the continuing shutdown on the unwillingness of Democrats to make a deal, singling out Nancy Pelosi who is set to become the House of Representatives speaker next week after Democrats won a majority in the chamber in November elections.
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“Nancy Pelosi is only looking to protect her speakership but not protect our borders and that’s why she’s unwilling to negotiate with us and unwilling to make any type of a deal and unwilling to help do what is necessary,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on the CBS This Morning program.
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Fox News Channel: “Where is Chuck Schumer? Where is Nancy Pelosi? They’re not even talking right now.”
Mulvaney said Trump, who scrapped plans to spend Christmas in his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and stayed in Washington because of the shutdown, had now also cancelled his New Year’s plans.
Drew Hammill, spokesman for Pelosi said Democrats will not fund Trump’s “immoral, ineffective and expensive wall.”
Hammill said Democrats are waiting for Trump to publicly endorse a proposal to end the shutdown because he “has changed his position so many times.”
Other Democrats brushed off the White House’s attempt to cast blame.
“For the White House to try and blame anyone but the president for this shutdown doesn’t pass the laugh test,” said Justin Goodman, a spokesman for Schumer.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
