Trump: Talks continuing to end gov’t shutdown

President Donald Trump on Saturday said that negotiations to fully reopen the government are continuing on the weekend and demanded once again that Democratic lawmakers approve the funds he wants to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.

“Teams negotiating this weekend!” declared Trump on Twitter, amid a series of tweets discussing the partial government shutdown, now in its 15th day.

According to the president, Democratic lawmakers could resolve the partial government paralysis “in very short period of time. All they have to do is approve REAL Border Security (including a Wall),” something that he claimed that “everyone, other than drug dealers, human traffickers and criminals, want very badly!”

In another tweet, Trump said that “I don’t care that most of the workers not getting paid are Democrats , I want to stop the Shutdown as soon as we are in agreement on Strong Border Security! I am in the White House ready to go, where are the Dems?”

The partial shutdown of many government agencies since Dec. 22 had idled some 800,000 of the 2.1 million federal workers, who will not receive paychecks as long as a budget bill has not been passed by lawmakers in both houses of Congress and signed by Trump.

Trump has refused to sign any budget bill sent to him by Congress unless it contains at least $5 billion in funding for the wall, a project that Democrats staunchly oppose, saying will be wasteful, will not work to seal the border and is against American values.

The House, now led by Democrat Nancy Pelosi, on Thursday approved funding bills to end the partial government shutdown but they did not include funds for Trump’s wall and those bills must now go to the Senate , where Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he would not allow any legislation to come to a vote if Trump would not sign it anyway.