TALKING TOUGH

Trump: I May Shut Down Government to Get Funding for Border Security

“We'll close down the country because we need border security.”

President Trump on Saturday suggested he’d be willing to shut down the government in September if Congress fails to approve his funding demands for border security. “We have to have borders, and we have to have them fast,” he told a crowd of supporters in Washington, Michigan. “We got 1.6 billion [for the wall]. We come up again on September 28th, and if we don't get border security, we'll have no choice. We'll close down the country because we need border security,” he said, referring to the government appropriations deadline at the end of the fiscal year. His threats to shutter the government to secure funding were a far cry from his earlier pledges at campaign rallies, when he repeatedly vowed that “Mexico will pay for the wall.”