President Donald Trump is getting impatient with the partial government shutdown he created, and now is threatening to shut down the entire U.S-Mexico border if Democrats don’t give in to his demands to fund the wall. “We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with,” the president tweeted at the beginning of the seventh day of the partial government shutdown.
He then went on to write a series of tweets in which he said that closing the border would be a “profit making operation” because the “United States loses soooo much money on Trade with Mexico under NAFTA.” For Trump, there are two options: “Either we build (finish) the Wall or we close the Border.”
The president also went on to threaten to slash aid to Central American countries. “Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are doing nothing for the United States but taking our money. Word is that a new Caravan is forming in Honduras and they are doing nothing about it. We will be cutting off all aid to these 3 countries - taking advantage of U.S. for years!” he wrote.
The words mark an escalation for the president who had previously said that if Democrats refused to build the wall then the government would remain partially shut. “I can’t tell you when the government’s going to be open,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “I can tell you it’s not going to be open until we have a wall or fence, whatever they’d like to call it.” This, however, was not the first time the president has threatened to close the southern border entirely.
Even though the president seems to be doing his best to try to get Americans to blame Democrats for the partial government shutdown, it seems most aren’t buying it. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday found that 47 percent of Americans blame Trump for the shutdown, compared to 33 percent who say Democrats are to blame.
