Three confidants of US President Donald Trump, including his departing chief of staff, are indicating that the president’s signature campaign pledge to build a wall along the US-Mexico border would not be fulfilled as advertised.
Trump sparked fervent chants of “Build that wall” at rallies before and after his election and more recently cited a lack of funding for a border wall as the reason for partially shutting down the government. At times the president has also waved off the idea that the wall could be any kind of barrier.
However, White House chief of staff John Kelly told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published on Sunday that Trump abandoned the notion of “a solid concrete wall early on in the administration.”
Photo: AFP
“To be honest, it’s not a wall,” Kelly said, adding that the mix of technological enhancements and “steel slat” barriers the president now wants along the border resulted from conversations with law enforcement professionals.
Along the same lines, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway called discussion of the apparent contradiction “a silly semantic argument.”
“There may be a wall in some places, there may be steel slats, there may be technological enhancements,” Conway told Fox News Sunday. “But only saying ‘wall or no wall’ is being very disingenuous and turning a complete blind eye to what is a crisis at the border.”
US Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who is close to the president, emerged from a Sunday lunch at the White House to tell reporters that “the wall has become a metaphor for border security” and referred to “a physical barrier along the border.”
Graham said Trump was “open-minded” about a broader immigration agreement, saying the budget impasse presented an opportunity to address issues beyond the border wall.
However, a previous attempt to reach a compromise that addressed the status of “Dreamers” — young immigrants brought to the US as children — broke down last year as a result of escalating White House demands.
Graham said he hoped to end the shutdown by offering Democrats incentives to get them to vote for wall funding and told CNN before his lunch with Trump that “there will never be a deal without wall funding.”
Graham proposed to help two groups of immigrants get approval to continue living in the US: about 700,000 young “Dreamers” and about 400,000 people receiving temporary protected status because they are from nations struggling with natural disasters or armed conflicts.
He added that the compromise should include changes in federal law to discourage people from trying to enter the US illegally.
“Democrats have a chance here to work with me and others, including the president, to bring legal status to people who have very uncertain lives,” Graham said.
The partial government shutdown began on Dec. 22 after Trump bowed to conservative demands that he fight to make good on his vow and secure funding for the wall before Republicans lose control of the House of Representatives tomorrow.
Democrats have remained committed to blocking the president’s priority, and with neither side engaging in substantive negotiation, the effect of the partial shutdown was set to spread and to extend into the new year.
Talks have been at a stalemate for more than a week, after Democrats said the White House offered to accept US$2.5 billion for border security.
US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told US Vice President Mike Pence that it was not acceptable, nor was it guaranteed that Trump, under intense pressure from his conservative base to fulfill his signature campaign promise, would settle for that amount.
Conway on Sunday said that “the president has already compromised” by dropping his request for the wall from US$25 billion, and she called on Democrats to return to the negotiating table.
Democrats said they had already presented the White House with three options to end the shutdown, none of which fund the wall, and insist that it is Trump’s move.
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