Trump to visit US-Mexico border this week amid government shutdown
Jan 7, 2019, 10:30 AM | Updated: 11:50 am
President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of the White House as he walks from Marine One, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Washington. Trump returned from a trip to Camp David. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
PHOENIX — President Donald Trump will visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday as the partial government shutdown stretches into its third week.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump will travel to the Southern border to “meet with those on the frontlines (sic) of the national security and humanitarian crisis.”
President @realDonaldTrump will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis. More details will be announced soon.
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) January 7, 2019
It was not immediately clear where Trump would be traveling to or who he would meet with during his trip.
Sanders said more details would be announced soon.
Trump said in a tweet that he would make a speech on border security and humanitarian issues on the border Tuesday night, but did not provide more details.
I am pleased to inform you that I will Address the Nation on the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border. Tuesday night at 9:00 P.M. Eastern.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2019
Trump showed no signs of budging on his demand for more than $5 billion for a wall along the border, though on Sunday he did offer to build it with steel rather than concrete, a concession Democrats panned.
With the shutdown lurching into a third week, many Republicans watched nervously from the sidelines as hundreds of thousands of federal workers went without pay and government disruptions hit the lives of ordinary Americans.
White House officials affirmed Trump’s funding request in a letter to Capitol Hill after a meeting Sunday with senior congressional aides led by Vice President Mike Pence at the White House complex yielded little progress.
The letter from Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought sought funding for a “steel barrier on the Southwest border.”
The White House said the letter, as well as details provided during the meeting, sought to answer Democrats’ questions about the funding request.
Democrats, though, said the administration still failed to provide a full budget of how it would spend the billions requested for the wall from Congress.
Trump campaigned on a promise that Mexico would pay for the wall, but Mexico has refused.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
