White House: Partial Shutdown of U.S. Government May Last Until New Year

Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director, announced on Sunday, December 23, that the partial shutdown of the U.S. government may last until 2019 and the start of the new Congress. Mr. Mulvaney told Fox News, "It is very likely that this shutdown will continue until after December 28 and the start of the new Congress." He added, "When you have a president who does not want to compromise on this issue, this is the situation." President Donald Trump, who canceled his New Year’s holiday in Florida due to the budget, is demanding $5 billion for the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico to prevent what he calls "illegal immigrants" from entering the U.S. The construction of this wall was one of Mr. Trump's promises during the 2016 presidential election campaign. Democrats are strongly opposed to allocating this budget, and in the absence of an agreement on this issue, funding for several government agencies has been blocked since early Saturday. While Mr. Trump and some Republican senators, such as Lindsey Graham, have stated that this wall must be built, Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, has said, "Mr. President, there is no wall." In another part of his remarks, the White House budget director said he is waiting to hear Chuck Schumer's opinion on the White House's new proposal regarding the wall funding to resolve the budget issue. He did not disclose the exact figure for the Trump administration's proposal but mentioned that it is somewhere between the government's request of $5.7 billion and the $1.3 billion proposed by the Democrats. This is the third government shutdown in the past year, and this is while Republicans supporting President Trump control both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Democrats will hold the majority in the House of Representatives starting January 3. It is unlikely that an agreement on the budget to end the government shutdown will be reached before the Christmas holidays this week. Previously, Donald Trump had threatened during a meeting with Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, and Chuck Schumer that either the budget for the wall must be approved or he would shut down the government. Ms. Pelosi stated that Donald Trump does not have the necessary votes in the House of Representatives to secure billions of dollars to fulfill his promise regarding the wall's construction.