President Trump may cancel his upcoming trip this month to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, if the partial government shutdown continues, he said Thursday.
“I intended to go and speak in front of the world financial community in Davos. That’s still on, but if the shutdown continues, which is in a while from now, but if the shutdown continues, I won’t go,” Trump told reporters before departing the White House for Texas. “I had planned to go. It’s been very successful when I went. We have a great story to tell.”
The president is expected to attend the annual gathering, which is set for Jan. 22-25. He addressed the World Economic Forum last year, becoming the first sitting president to attend since President Bill Clinton in 2000.
Trump is expected to be joined on the trip by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and White House advisers Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
The White House and congressional Democrats are stalemated over a deal to fund a slew of government agencies. Trump is demanding Congress provide $5.7 billion in a government spending bill for a border wall.
Democrats, however, oppose that request.
The shutdown is affecting roughly 800,000 federal workers who will miss their first paycheck Friday.
The president has spent the week talking up the need for stronger border security, including a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump addressed the American people from the Oval Office on Tuesday, spoke with Senate Republicans at a lunch on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, and is traveling to the border Thursday.
He also hosted congressional leaders at the White House on Wednesday afternoon for further negotiations, though the meeting ended at an impasse.
Trump walked out of the meeting after Democrats told him they wouldn’t support funding for a border wall and called the meeting a “total waste of time.”
Democratic leaders, meanwhile, accused the president of slamming the table and raising his voice.
The meeting lasted roughly 15 minutes.
