With the partial government shutdown in its 12th day, President Trump is raising the profile and increasing the confidentiality of a meeting with Republicans and Democrats on border security by holding it in the Situation Room.
The Situation Room, intended for highly classified material, is by nature closed to the press, meaning there will be no televised theatrics like the infamous meeting in December when Mr. Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi he would be “proud” to shut down the government over border security. That meeting, the last time Mr. Trump has met with the top Democrats face to face, frustrated some Republicans, who wanted to more easily be able to blame Democrats for the shutdown. The president has since blamed Schumer and the Democrats for the partial government shutdown, but the earlier televised comments claiming credit for the shutdown have undermined his more recent assertions.
There is no clear pathway to ending the shutdown, with Democrats insisting they don’t want to fund the president’s proposed border wall, and Mr. Trump demanding his wall be funded — although he’s been unclear on exactly what he would sign. When Democrats’ first day in control of the House begins Thursday, they’ll introduce legislation to reopen the government. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he won’t bring a bill to the floor until he knows the president will sign it.
