After the longest government shutdown in American history, President Trump has agreed to temporarily reopen the government.
He announced that a deal had been reached to reopen the government, but only for 3 weeks while lawmakers try to make a deal regarding immigration and border security. The 35-day shutdown ends without the allocation of the $5.7 billion Trump demanded for his border wall.
That doesn’t mean he’s given up on building the wall, though. Speaking to reporters, Trump referenced his ability to declare a national emergency to build the border wall, although as The Guardian points out, many legal experts disagree.
Trump praised the “extraordinary devotion” of federal employees who continued to work throughout the shutdown, and said that he will “make sure that all employees receive their backpay very quickly”. Roughly 1800 GoFundMes have been created in the past six weeks to support federal employees who weren’t being paid as a result of the shutdown.
The announcement follows yesterday’s arrest of one of Trump’s former advisers, Roger Stone. He was charged with witness tampering, obstruction of an official proceeding, and making false statements.
my dude looks like the babadook https://t.co/9d0C79q9Om
— Goth Ms. Frizzle (@spookperson) March 15, 2017
The temporary nature of the funding means that if there’s no deal by February 15th, Trump can shut down the government once more, as he clearly stated in a tweet this morning, writing: “…in 21 days, if no deal is done, it’s off to the races!”
I wish people would read or listen to my words on the Border Wall. This was in no way a concession. It was taking care of millions of people who were getting badly hurt by the Shutdown with the understanding that in 21 days, if no deal is done, it’s off to the races!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2019
Nonetheless, this three-week reprieve will come as a relief to the 800,000 federal employees who continued working throughout the shutdown. Here’s hoping the Democrats continue to refuse to fund Trump’s wall, and that he just accepts defeat and doesn’t throw the country into chaos again. But that doesn’t sound very Trump-like, does it? Shame.