President Trump abruptly walked out of a meeting with congressional leaders Wednesday after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told him the Democrats wouldn’t approve funding for a border wall, dashing hopes for immediate progress on ending the partial government shutdown.
Mr. Trump tweeted that the meeting with Mrs. Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) had been a “total waste of time” and said that when Mrs. Pelosi told him Democrats wouldn’t approve border- wall funding, “I said bye-bye, nothing else works!”
Senate Democratic leaders said they had made a plea to Mr. Trump to reopen the government, but the president made clear he wouldn’t agree to a short-term spending bill that would reopen government unless Democrats would agree to fund the border wall.
Mr. Schumer told reporters Mr. Trump “just got up and walked out” of the meeting, telling congressional leaders gathered in the White House Situation Room: “We have nothing to discuss.”
Vice President Mike Pence said Mr. Trump arrived at the afternoon meeting ready to negotiate, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) said the president “even brought a little candy for everybody.” Yet neither the president nor the Democrats showed any sign of budging.
The collapse of the negotiations came on the 19th day of the partial government shutdown, which is days from becoming the longest in history. The president earlier in the day said he would declare a national emergency to pay for a border wall “if I can’t make a deal with people that are unreasonable.”
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