WASHINGTON — The 18-day shutdown of the federal government showed little sign of ending after President Donald Trump walked out of a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Schumer said Trump left the meeting abruptly after he asked Pelosi whether she would support his demand for a border wall, and she said no.
“We saw a temper tantrum,” Schumer told reporters gathered on the White House driveway.
Trump confirmed that he did leave the meeting, and said in a tweet that he had asked Pelosi “what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO.”
“I said bye-bye, nothing else works!” Trump wrote. He called the meeting a “waste of time.”
Vice President Mike Pence and Republican leaders challenged some of Schumer’s version of events, denying that Trump also slammed his hand on a table or raised his voice.
This was the third meeting at the White House between Trump and congressional leaders over the impasse.
Trump “has put offers on the table. Not once have the Democrats offered anything back. The entire time I have been in these meetings, they want to just argue so people can’t present a fact.
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Just an hour before, Trump visited Capitol Hill, where he insisted that Republicans were united in their support for his position that Congressional appropriations should include border wall funding. Trump said in a meeting with Schumer and Pelosi in December that he would be “proud” to shut down the government over border security.
On Tuesday, he gave a primetime address from the Oval Office, where he called border security a “crisis,” and characterized Democrats as intractable in their refusal to support wall funding.
The lack of progress in negotiations raises the prospect that Trump will declare a national emergency, a move that would bypass Congress and enable him to obtain funds from the Defense Department to build the wall. But that is also likely to be challenged in court. Pence indicated to reporters that declaring an emergency was still an option that the president was considering.