The move is being seen as an effort to quash the #TrumpCaved narrative circulating on Twitter. Trump’s Press Secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed the move in a tweet on Saturday. She said: “In 21 days President Donald Trump is moving forward building the wall with or without the Democrats.
“The only outstanding question is whether the Democrats want something or nothing .”
Ms Sanders’ intervention is believed to be a reiteration of Trump’s earlier ambiguous message in which he said it would be “off to the races” if no deal was achieved in the next three weeks.
It came just hours after Trump announced a deal to end the shutdown.
However The President threatened to shut down the government again if a further agreement could not be reached over funding for the promised wall along the USA’s southern border with Mexico.
READ MORE: White House official OVERRULES FBI security recommendations 30 TIMES
Pleading for support from his base, Trump reframed his move to bring an end to the shutdown misery as necessary to put food back on the tables of the “incredible patriots” forced to do their jobs without pay.
Roughly 800,000 federal employees have gone for almost two months without pay since the government was shut down over the border wall funding row.
Trump wanted $5.7billion (£3.8billion) to fund the contentious campaign pledge – but the shutdown itself has already racked up a huge $6billion (£4.5billion) bill, according to S&P Global Ratings estimates.
Trump signed a bill ending the government shutdown on Friday evening after announcing he would reopen the government for 21 days – enough time, he said, for Congress to work on a more permanent solution to the border security issue.
More to follow…