Trump on verge of signing Mexican border wall deal

Donald Trump yesterday moved closer to accepting a deal on border security, saying he didn’t want another shutdown.

‘We’ll be looking for landmines in the bill’: Donald Trump yesterday. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump yesterday moved closer to accepting a deal on border security, saying he didn’t want another government shutdown despite the “stingy” money that Democrats gave to his border wall.

The US President said he had a “lot of options” to unilaterally fund the border wall in addition to the $US1.34 billion ($1.89bn) the Democrats have allocated to building new barriers along the US-Mexico border.

The White House said the President would wait until he saw the final proposed deal before ­deciding whether to sign it.

“We haven’t gotten it yet. We’ll be getting it and we’ll be looking for landmines” in the bill, Mr Trump said.

But he also said he didn’t want another government shutdown so soon after the recent record one of 35 days. “I don’t want to see a ­shutdown. A shutdown would be a terrible thing,” he said.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said: “The President wants to see what the final package looks like and he’ll make a decision at that point.”

But Mr Trump was more upbea­t yesterday about the deal reached between Republicans and Democrats than he was 24 hours earlier, when he said he was “not happy” with the outcome.

He said the entire spending package represented an 8 per cent increase in spending on border securi­ty and he claimed that he had ‘‘a lot of options’’ to further fund his proposed border wall.

He said that he had “options that most people don’t understand” to build the wall without congressional approval.

While he did not say what these were, they are believed to include using executive powers to order a limited transfer of funding from departments such as Treasury and Defence towards the construction of the wall.

The other more sweeping option is to declare a national emergency on border security to secure funds without congressional approv­al, although this would face a legal challenge from Democrats.

Mr Trump praised Republican negotiators for “really going against a radical Left”, who he said had a “stingy” about providing funds for a wall.

The President had initially asked congress to approve $US5.7bn to build more than 320km of new barriers along the border but the $1.34bn in the deal will only fund the construction of about 96km of new barriers.

The proposed deal on border security, which would see the US government funded through until September, has been criticised by both conservative commentators and by liberal Democrats, who believ­e their own sides surrendered too much.

But Democrat House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged her party colleagues to suppo­rt the deal.

“As with all compromises, I say to people: support the bill for what is in it,” Ms Pelosi said.

“Don’t judge it for what is not in it. We have other days to pass other legislation.”

The deal also represents a backdown by Ms Pelosi, who had initial­ly promised there would be no funding for new barriers on the border and said that a border wall was “immoral”.

The house is expected to pass the spending bill later today, with the President likely to consider signing it on Saturday.

If he refuses to sign it, the governme­nt will shut down again, leaving 800,000 federal workers without pay for the second time in two months.

If Mr Trump approves the bill, it will end months of bitter rancour and deadlock between Democrats and the President on border security and the need for a wall.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia