With the partial government shutdown dragging into its third week, President Trump on Sunday headed to Camp David for a White House staff retreat at which border security and other topics are on the agenda. The meeting comes one day after Vice President Pence, top White House officials and senior congressional aides emerged empty-handed after more than two hours of negotiations on ending the stalemate. Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Sunday morning, Trump said he understood the predicament facing hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are not receiving their paychecks. “I can relate, and I’m sure the people who are on the receiving end will make adjustments; they always do,” Trump said. He claimed that “many of those people agree with what I’m doing” on refusing to reopen the government without obtaining funding for his long-promised border wall.

Source: Washington Post January 06, 2019 15:41 UTC