Trump administration wants to avoid government shutdown

The White House said Tuesday that it wants to avoid a partial shutdown of the US government and it is looking for other alternatives to finance President Donald Trump ‘s wall on the border with Mexico if Congress decides not to provide funds for the project.

In an interview with Fox News, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said that there are “a number of different funding sources” to obtain the funds for the wall, though she did not specify what alternatives the administration was considering.

Congress must approve a budget before midnight Friday to avoid a partial shutdown of the federal government open and Trump has demanded that the spending plan include $5 billion for the wall.

Last week, Trump said in a televised Oval Office session with Democratic congressional leaders that he would be “proud to shut down the government” over the issue of border security.

Sanders struck a different note on Tuesday.

“At the end of the day we don’t want to shut down the government, we want to shut down the border,” she told Fox.

The Democratic leadership in Congress has offered Trump $1.3 billion for border security, but opposes having those funds used for the construction of the wall, while some Republican Party lawmakers reject the idea of financing the wall because it would increase the budget deficit.