Trump goes off the rails in freewheeling news conference raging about the shutdown, the border wall, DACA, and Democrats
- President Donald Trump held a raucous, freewheeling news conference at the White House on Friday, answering reporters' questions about the ongoing government shutdown.
- He confirmed that he told top Democrats the shutdown could go on for months or years.
- He also told reporters he would consider declaring a "national emergency" to build the wall without Congressional approval.
President Donald Trump took to the White House Rose Garden on Friday to address the media after a meeting with top Democrats about the ongoing government shutdown, but he quickly spun off into a freewheeling rant on his most frequently cited border topics.
Trump confirmed during the news conference that he told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that the shutdown could go on for "months, or even years."
"Without borders, we don't have a country," Trump said. "I hope it doesn't go on even beyond a few more days. It really could open very quickly."
The shutdown over Trump's requested $5.6 billion in border-wall funding is nearing the two-week mark, and shows no signs of abating. Top Democrats have said they continue to oppose the border wall, and Trump has insisted he won't sign anything that doesn't include the funding.
Trump even told reporters at one point he would consider using emergency powers to secure the funding and build the wall without Congressional approval.
"Absolutely, we can call a national emergency," Trump said. "I haven't done it. I may do it. I may do it. We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly. It's another way of doing it. If we can do it through a renegotiated process, we're giving that a shot."
Here are a few of the topics he touched on:
Making a deal on Dreamers in exchange for the wall
Trump first raged at former President Barack Obama for creating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, which allowed the young unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the United States as children known as "Dreamers" to stay in the US.
The president also slammed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for ruling against the Trump administration last year and upholding a block on ending the program.. He predicted that the Supreme Court will ultimately strike the program down.
Trump also ripped Congressional Democrats for attempting to negotiate a similar deal last year, that would have allocated $25 billion in border-wall funding in exchange for protections for the Dreamers.
He confirmed that DACA is up for discussion, but not amid the border-wall funding debate.
"We want to do what's right and do it all at one time. We don't want to take it in pieces," he said. "DACA is going to be a great subject. I look forward to discussing it at another time. There are a lot of great things that can happen if the Democrats want to do that."
'Terrorists' coming through the US-Mexico border
"I talk about human traffickers, I talk about drugs and gangs, but a lot of people don't say we have terrorists coming through the southern border because they find that's probably the easiest place to come through," Trump said.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen stepped forward to clarify that Border Patrol stopped more than 3,000 "special interest aliens" last year attempting to cross the southern border, whom US intelligence flagged as causes for concern.
"They either have travel patterns that are identified as terrorist travel patterns or they have known or suspected ties to terrorism. So we have 3,000 that we know about," Nielsen said.
Immigration experts have previously expressed skepticism over the "special interest aliens" category, noting that the definition is so broad it could apply to travelers from just about any country — particularly those with majority-Muslim populations.
"Zero people were murdered or injured in terror attacks committed on US soil by special interest aliens who entered illegally from 1975 through the end of 2017," the Cato Institute notes. "None of them successfully carried out their attacks and none illegally crossed the Mexican border."
Whether the newly renegotiated NAFTA will pay for the border wall
Multiple reporters pushed back against Trump's frequent claims that the economic output generated by the new US-Mexico-Canada Agreement will fund the wall, noting that Congress hasn't yet ratified the deal, and taxpayers would still be funding the $5.6 billion Trump is requesting.
"In fact, what we save on the USMCA — the new trade deal we have with Mexico and Canada — what we save on that will pay for the wall many times over in two years and three years," Trump said. "I view that as absolutely Mexico is paying for the wall and that's fine."
Why he pivoted from a concrete wall to steel slats
Trump falsely told reporters he had never demanded a concrete wall, even though he frequently said during his 2016 presidential campaign that it would be made of concrete.
He has recently taken to calling the wall "steel slats" or a "steel barrier," reportedly in the hopes that the phrases would be more palatable to Democrats.
"I know you're not into the construction business, you don't understand something," he told one reporter. "Steel is stronger than concrete. If I build this wall or fence or anything the Democrats need to call, it because I'm not into names, I'm into production. I'm into something that works … Listen, if I build a wall and the wall is made out of steel instead of concrete, I think people will like that."
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