Tuesday afternoon, ahead of a looming government funding deadline that could result in a shutdown, Donald Trump held a roundtable on immigration issues. Using his trademark master negotiating skills that have only led him to declare bankruptcy half a dozen times, President Deals quickly ceded the higher ground to democrats, saying “I’d love to see a shutdown.”
“I’d love to see a shutdown if we don’t get this stuff taken care of,” Trump says regarding immigration policies. “The world is laughing at us because they can’t believe these policies.” pic.twitter.com/sjqGt101Ab
— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) February 6, 2018
“Let’s have a shutdown. We’ll do a shutdown. And it’s worth it for our country. I’d love to see a shutdown if we don’t get this stuff taken care of. So we have to strengthen our borders, not by a little, by a lot.”
He went on to say, “If we have to shut it down because the Democrats don’t want safety––and unrelated but still related, they don’t want to take care of our military––then shut it down, we’ll go with another shutdown.”
This is a pretty big shift in the president’s position that a shutdown over immigration is “not the answer” from just two weeks ago
Nobody knows for sure that the Republicans & Democrats will be able to reach a deal on DACA by February 8, but everyone will be trying….with a big additional focus put on Military Strength and Border Security. The Dems have just learned that a Shutdown is not the answer!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 23, 2018