Trump tweets he’s alone at White House waiting for Dems deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was meeting with his Homeland Security secretary and other officials on Monday to discuss border security issues as a partial government shutdown over his U.S.-Mexico border wall entered Christmas without a clear resolution in sight.

Though both sides have traded offers over the dollars, they remain far apart on the wall. The White House insists Trump will reject any deal that does not include money for a wall or fence; Democrats were holding firm in their opposition to a wall or other physical barrier.

In a joint statement Monday, the Democratic leaders, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, said as long as Trump keeps listening to the Freedom Caucus and others on the right flank, there is no easy resolution to the impasse.

“It’s Christmas Eve and President Trump is plunging the country into chaos,” the leaders said. They pointed to problems beyond the shutdown, including the plunging stock market and the president’s firing of the defense secretary. “The president wanted the shutdown, but he seems not to know how to get himself out of it.”

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said a counteroffer was presented over the weekend to Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. Mulvaney would only say the offer was between Trump’s $5.7 billion request and $1.3 billion Democrats have offered.

“We moved off of the five and we hope they move up from their 1.3,” he said Sunday, a day after a senior administration official insisted Congress would have to cave into Trump’s spending demand for the shutdown to end. The comments highlighted Trump’s unpredictable negotiating style.

A Democratic aide granted anonymity to discuss the private talks confirmed the White House offered $2.5 billion, an initial $2.1 billion plus $400 million Democrats called a “slush fund” for the president’s other immigration priorities.

Mulvaney said he was awaiting a response from Schumer, whose office said the parties remained “very far apart.”

Trump chimed in from the White House, where he has been cooped up since the shutdown began early Saturday.

“I am all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security,” Trump tweeted. “At some point the Democrats not wanting to make a deal will cost our Country more money than the Border Wall we are all talking about. Crazy!”