The president rejects the Democratic plan to end the partial closure of the Administration, which began on December 22
Trump threatens to declare a “national emergency” to finance the wall with Mexico
I brake Donald Trump in Congress
Democrat Nancy Pelosi, new president of the US House of Representatives

“It seems we’re going to have to build a steel wall, which is more expensive.” US President Donald Trump made this statement on Friday after dismissing Democratic Congress leaders without a compromise – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer – who went to the White House to try to achieve a solution that ends the controversy by the partial closure of the Government.

In addition, the president said he was “prepared” for the budgetary paralysis to last more than a year. In fact, Democratic leaders assured that Trump threatened during the meeting that the closure could be extended “months or even years”.

This Friday was a second meeting in which both parties tried to stage before their respective voters their intentions to reach a pact that reopens the Administration, closed since December 22 after the impossibility of consensus on the financing of the wall with Mexico.

Trump wants to use 5,600 million dollars for the controversial construction on the border; one of his electoral promises to which the democrats refuse. After the meeting, the president even threatened to declare a national emergency to order its construction without the need for approval of funds by Congress, Efe reported.

“I can do it if I want,” Trump said at a news conference. “We can declare a national emergency and build it very quickly (…) I have not done it, but maybe I will, but if we can do it through negotiation, we will try,” he argued.

The US president confirmed that he will meet during the weekend with his cabinet to work. At the exit of the White House, Schumer only managed to declare that “we have asked the president not to turn the officials into hostages of this situation”, in reference to the 800,000 government employees who remain unemployed as a result of the administrative chaos in Washington.

Given the difficulty of bringing both positions closer, Trump and the Democrats, Pelosi and Schumer, could agree to exchange the controversial construction project to shield the border, for a measure of protection for undocumented youth – approved by former President Barack Obama – the impossible to achieve complete immigration reform, a law that Trump has always wanted to repeal.

The Republican congressman of California, Kevin McCarthy, conservative leader of the Lower House, who also attended the meeting yesterday, was optimistic saying that “we can find common ground.” “I’m willing to talk,” McCarthy said before meeting the president.

The blackout of the US Executive also limits the functions of federal agencies and the judicial system and, if an agreement is not found in the next few days, it would also affect the economy.

The main problem is that both parties want to reach an agreement that benefits them for their constituents. Trump feels obliged to fulfill his promise -the central piece of the political campaign that led him to the White House-; Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have to demonstrate to the Democratic voters not only that they are capable of restraining the president, but that they can also make Washington work again in the way they want.

This Thursday, after the inauguration of the new session of the Congress, Pelosi managed to approve two measures to reopen the Government without granting the funds claimed by Trump for the wall. “We are not going to build a wall,” he said. “A wall is an immorality between countries, it’s an old way of thinking, it’s not profitable,” he said, arguing that the money would be better spent on other tools that ensure border control.

Pelosi wanted to highlight the intransigence of President Trump, who had promised to veto the initiative. This political maneuver has already secured the support in the Senate of both parties to open the closed agencies and keep them until September 30, the last day of the fiscal year.

In addition, the congressmen approved a bill to finance the Department of National Security until February 8.