U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a bill signing ceremony for the “First Step Act” and the “Juvenile Justice Reform Act” in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., December 21, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that a partial shutdown of the government would hopefully not last long, after Republican senators failed to muster the votes needed to approve a funding measure that included $5 billion for a border wall fiercely opposed by Democrats.
“We’re going to have a shutdown. There’s nothing we can do about that because we need the Democrats to give us their votes,” Trump said in a video posted to his Twitter account hours before a midnight deadline to pass a stop-gap budget measure. “The shutdown hopefully not last long.”
Reporting by David Alexander; Writing by Alexandra Alper