WASHINGTON — President Trump was supposed to wake up at his Mar-a-Lago estate, but instead awoke in the White House residence — tweeting about the shutdown dawning on the anniversary of his inauguration. “The Democrats wanted to give me a nice present,” Mr. Trump wrote, adding the hash tag #DemocratShutdown.
“We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done,” Mr. Trump said at his inauguration.
The job of funding the government is now not done.That means most federal agencies will close, but key national security and law enforcement personnel will continue working.
The White House said it will sign a three-week spending bill but refuses to negotiate any immigration issues, including the status of so-called Dreamers, until the government is re-opened. Budget director Mick Mulvaney accused Democrats of distorting their talks with Mr. Trump and refusing to pass a bill that contains provisions they’d normally support.
While Mulvaney said he doesn’t want to speak to “someone else’s good faith,” he said “it’s extraordinary difficult to negotiate with people who won’t vote for something they like.”
Earlier this year, the president tweeted the country could use a good shutdown.
During the last lapse in federal funding in 2013, Mr. Trump said it was the president’s responsiblity to resolve the impasse.
“You have to get everybody in a room,” Mr. Trump said in 2013. “You have to be a leader. The president has to lead.”
If you dial the main White House number, you will get a recording that blames Democrats for holding national security hostage, and that recording promises someone will pick up the phone — but not until the shutdown ends.
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