Trump Today: President demands border-security funding to avert government shutdown
Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump is demanding that border-security funding be a part of a bill to head off a looming government shutdown.
President Donald Trump on Thursday demanded that border-security funding be a part of a bill to head off a looming government shutdown, as Washington had a little more than a day to keep operations going.
TRUMP DEMANDS SECURITY MONEY
With a partial shutdown set to take effect Friday at midnight, Trump rejected a Senate-passed measure that doesn't include $5 billion for his proposed border wall.
Speaking ahead of signing the farm bill, Trump said there was a debate over funding border security and that the word "wall" didn't have to be used. He substituted the words "steel slats" for wall to give opponents "a little bit of an out." House Republicans were moving to add $5 billion for Trump's wall to a short-term funding bill.
Trump also vented on Twitter about his proposed wall by saying he'd been promised funding by the end of this year. "It didn't happen!" he said. "Not good!" Conservatives in the House have blasted Trump for not pushing harder.
Getty ImagesHouse Speaker Paul Ryan, right, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy talk to journalists after meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday. U.S. stocks DJIA, -1.81% fell amid drama over the shutdown and as investors digested the Federal Reserve's Wednesday decision to increase its target for the federal-funds rate by a quarter point.
Read: What a government shutdown could mean for stock markets.
REVERSAL ON ISIS DEFEAT CLAIM
A day after declaring ISIS defeated in Syria, Trump appeared to reverse himself by saying Russia, Iran and Syrian forces would now have to fight the group. The president has faced sharp criticism from Republicans including Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bob Corker, and said on Twitter that his Syria decision was "no surprise" and that he'd long been campaigning on it. Graham called Trump's declaring ISIS defeated "fake news."
Trump hit back at Graham on Twitter, saying it was hard to believe the senator "would be against saving soldier lives & billions of $$$."
In defense of his move, Trump asked if the U.S. wants to be the policeman of the Middle East and get nothing for it. He cited supportive comments by GOP Sens. Rand Paul and Mike Lee.
The president also said Russia and other nations were unhappy about the U.S. leaving. Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin called Trump's withdrawal "the right decision."
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