President Trump indicated on Wednesday that he would accept a government shutdown in order to press for funding for building more of the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. “If it happens, it happens,” he said about the potential for a government shutdown when the current funding expires at the end of September.
Speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting with the Republican House and Senate leadership, Trump said that “if it’s about border security, I’m willing to do anything” even as lawmakers warn that a shutdown ahead of the November midterm elections would be politically perilous. “We have to protect our borders,” Trump added.
Trump has been pushing for a threefold increase in border wall funds for fiscal 2019, although some Republicans who have been noncommittal or skeptical about the increase, have taken a more favorable stance as the Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government approaches.
Earlier on Wednesday we reported that Trump is once again wielding threats of a “good” government shutdown as a cudgel to batter intransigent Democrats and Republicans who are standing in the way of his plans to build his promised wall along the US’s southern border.
This isn’t the first time Trump has threatened a shutdown – and at this point in the game, with the outrageous allegation from Bob Woodward’s tell-all vying for dominance in the news cycle and Trump’s trade war contributing to the stress in emerging markets – the president might view a shutdown fight as an advantageous distraction ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm vote. But there’s also reason to believe the president could be sincere about this threat. After all, even his Republican allies in Congress have done seemingly everything in their power to avoid the issue of funding for the border wall.
Republican leaders have been eager to persuade the president to delay a showdown over border-wall funding until later in the year. Earlier Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan indicated that the president understood a government shutdown wouldn’t be effective. As the WSJ notes, Congressional Republicans have worked to complete funding bills for most government departments by the time the current funding expires at end of this month, but would leave the Department of Homeland Security’s funding for later in the year.
Congress is also expected to pass a stopgap measure funding DHS and some other agencies at current funding levels until after the midterm elections.
However, given Trump’s unpredictability GOP leaders have been preparing for the worst-case scenario: That Trump puts his foot down and insists on the shutdown. If he does, lawmakers will have little recourse – unless they could muster the votes to override a presidential veto.
Finally, as this morning, we note that the spread between pre- and post-fiscal-year-end Treasury Bill yields is once again spiking, signaling the market is starting to price in some anxiety across that crucial dateline.
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