Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Saturday said that President Trump is open to building a metal fence — rather than a concrete wall — along the U.S.-Mexico border, signaling the White House’s “desire to try” to end the government shutdown.
“[President Trump] was willing to agree, and he mentioned this at the Rose Garden press conference, to take a concrete wall off the table,” Mulvaney told Meet the Press host Chuck Todd in an interview scheduled to air Sunday.
Mulvaney cited the proposal as “evidence of [the White House’s] willingness to solve the problem.”
“Because again, what’s driving this is the president’s desire to change the conditions at the border,” the top White House official continued. “And if he has to give up a concrete wall, replace it with a steel fence in order to do that so that Democrats can say, ‘See? He’s not building a wall anymore'” that should help us move in the right direction.”
White House officials met with congressional aides on Saturday to discuss plans to re-open the government, which was partially closed on December 22.
President Donald Trump vowed Sunday not to cave in the shutdown fight with Democrats over border wall funding.
“There’s not going to be any bend right here,” Trump said, reminding reporters that his voters and even some Democrat voters supported the idea of stronger border security.
Trump spoke to reporters at the White House on the ongoing shutdown as it entered its 16th day.
“Do you think I like doing this? I don’t like doing this, but we have no choice,” Trump said, calling the wall “desperately needed.”
The president traveled with staff to Camp David in Maryland to work on agenda items for the upcoming year.
Trump said it would be easy to end the shutdown, calling for Democrats to negotiate.
“Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and myself can solve this in 20 minutes if they want to, if they don’t want to, it’s going to go on for a long time,” he said.
