[Tom4784]

US President Donald Trump has said he is prepared for a partial shutdown of the US government - now entering its third week - to last years.

After meeting top Democrats at the White House, the Republican president stood by his demand for congressional funding of a US-Mexico border wall.

Mr Trump said he would not sign any budget bill without such funding, but Democrats are adamantly against.

Around 800,000 federal workers have been without pay since 22 December.

Mr Trump initially gave a positive account of the meeting, describing it as "very productive".

"We're all on the same path in terms of wanting to get government open," he said at the White House.

But then he acknowledged in response to a journalist's question that he had threatened to keep federal agencies closed for years if necessary.

"I did say that, absolutely I said that," said Mr Trump in the White House Rose Garden. "I don't think it will but I am prepared."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer met Mr Trump earlier on Friday.

Afterwards, Senator Schumer told reporters: "We told the president we needed the government open. He resisted.

"In fact he said he'd keep the government closed for a very long period of time. Months or even years."

The White House and top Democrats also held a meeting earlier this week over the shutdown.

Democrats, who now hold the majority in the House, passed spending bills on Thursday to reopen the government, including $1.3bn (£1bn) of border security funds until 8 February.

But the legislation cannot take effect unless it passes the Republican-controlled Senate, where leader Mitch McConnell said his party would not back any measures without the president's support.

The Kentucky senator called the Democratic budget "a time-wasting act of political posturing"

The Washington Post reported on Friday that while hundreds of federal workers go without pay, the president's cabinet secretaries, top administrators as well as Vice-President Mike Pence are expected to receive annual raises of about $10,000.

The partial US government shutdown began when Congress and Mr Trump failed to reach an agreement over a budget bill in December.

The Republicans had passed an initial funding bill including $5bn (£4bn) for the wall, when they still had a majority in the House, but they could not get the necessary 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate.

Two vulnerable Republican senators up for re-election in 2020 - Cory Gardner of Colorado and Susan Collins of Maine - have spoken out in favour of approving the budget bills to end the government shutdown.

The White House is again floating the idea of a deal for 'Dreamers' - immigrants who illegally entered the US as children.

Democrats want to ensure that these individuals are shielded from deportation, but have insisted that they will not support a deal over wall funding.

Vice-President Mike Pence told Fox News the deal was being "talked about", but that Mr Trump said no deal was possible "without a wall".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46763940

They need to impeach that mentally incompetent manbaby as soon as possible, this is utterly ridiculous. The wall is nothing but a monument to his own ego and won't be anything but a waste of money and people have gone without pay because of it and Trump recently said that he won't back down because he'll look foolish (a few years too late for that...).

This kind of ridiculous behaviour should inspire a bypartisan effort to go over Trump's head but it won't because the Republicans are being tribalistic about it and are helping Trump aim while he pisses all over the american people.

Mueller can't serve his findings soon enough.

[montblanc]

i just don’t understand how people support this erratic behavior regardless of whatever political party they are affiliated with but hey that’s politics

people will support whoever is on their “side” even if they are quite frankly a giant incompetent baby

[Marsh.]

Mess he's like a child building a lego fort.

[montblanc]

Originally Posted by Marsh.

Mess he's like a child building a lego fort.

[Marsh.]

"And we can surround this whole house! Imma need THIS many boxes Mama!!!"

[bots]

Best president ever

I particularly liked it when he said to Obama that it is the presidents weakness if there is a shutdown and that he should resign

[Glenn.]

I’d call him a scrotum but a scrotum has a purpose

[Epic.]

He's such a stupid turd

[Nicky91]

of course he doesn't care about people getting paid, Trump only cares about Trump wbk


hope US will get a new president this year, i mean that they should give Trump the boot out of office if they want to save their country

[arista]

All reports are saying they
Cannot Impeach Trump


also New Democrat Women
has called for Trump to be Impeached
but then called him a Mother Fecker!

Her son was near her

[Liam-]

That wasn’t Cortez Arista, it was Rashida Tlaib

[arista]

Originally Posted by Liam-

That wasn’t Cortez Arista, it was Rashida Tlaib

Yes it was Tlaib
thanks for your correction, Liam.

Spoiler:

[Tom4784]

Apparently he's warned he'll declare a national emergency if he doesn't get the funding.

He's just an utter knob rot, isn't he?

[Matthew.]

Originally Posted by Liam-

That wasn’t Cortez Arista, it was Rashida Tlaib

Any excuse to have a dig at Cortez

even if she hadn’t even done anything wrong

[Crimson Dynamo]

Lets all take shots at a guy who has put himself forward to run a country, to take the flak and make the decisions

ask yourself what have you done for your country, for your fellow citizens?

I wonder what the answers would be?

[Alf]

Orange man bad

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

Lets all take shots at a guy who has put himself forward to run a country, to take the flak and make the decisions

ask yourself what have you done for your country, for your fellow citizens?

I wonder what the answers would be?

None of us have withheld pay from 800,000 workers for an ego trip, I can tell you that.

[Crimson Dynamo]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

None of us have withheld pay from 800,000 workers for an ego trip, I can tell you that.

Is your account but then again your experience of running a 300 million person democracy is what?

[RileyH]

lmao the US is ****ed

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

Is your account but then again your experience of running a 300 million person democracy is what?

Get better bait, LT, this is weak and obvious.

[arista]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

Apparently he's warned he'll declare a national emergency if he doesn't get the funding.

He's just an utter knob rot, isn't he?

Yes he may attempt
to make it a National Emergency
but there is no guarantee
he can get that set up , yet.

[arista]

Originally Posted by Matthew.

Any excuse to have a dig at Cortez

even if she hadn’t even done anything wrong

No Cortez was live on one of news feeds screens
and I was working
I made a honest Error.


I thanked Liam
who took the time to correct me.
It was Tlaib with her son standing next to her
when she said Mother Fecker Trump
a Early Photo her with the glasses



[Democrat Jerry Nadler of New York told CNN:
"I don't really like that kind of language, but more to the point it is too early to talk about [impeachment] intelligently."]

[Matthew.]

Originally Posted by arista

No Cortez was live on one of news feeds screens
and I was working
I made a honest Error.

I know that Arista, I was joking

[arista]

Originally Posted by Matthew.

I know that Arista, I was joking

Fair Play To You Matthew

[Beso]

Seemingly the American population voted for Trump because of the wall and won...who are these bastards blocking the will of the people?