President Trump is not committing to signing a spending bill that would avoid a partial government shutdown after Friday if it doesn’t include funding for his wall on the southern border with Mexico.
“I don’t know yet. People want the border wall,” Trump said when asked by the Associated Press if he would sign a spending bill that didn’t include funding for the wall, according to a transcript released Monday. “My base definitely wants the border wall, my base really wants it — you’ve been to many of the rallies. OK, the thing they want more than anything is the wall.”
“I don’t want to comment. I just don’t know yet,” he added. “I mean, I have to see what’s going on. I really do. But the wall’s a very important thing to — not only my base, but to the people. And even if it wasn’t, I mean I’ll do things that aren’t necessarily popular. … The wall is very important to stopping drugs.”
Trump’s border wall between the United States and Mexico, and his pledge to force Mexico to pay for it, was his most consistent policy pitch from the campaign trail. Trump has since pivoted to arguing Mexico will pay for the wall eventually, after U.S. taxpayers front the money.
During his interview with the AP, Trump said he believes the wall would cost as little as $10 billion. Most estimates show the wall would cost twice that.
“I think $10 billion or less. And if I do a super-duper, higher, better, better security, everything else, maybe it goes a little bit more,” he said.
“But it’s not going to be anywhere near [those] kind of numbers,” he said. “And they’re using those numbers; they’re using the high numbers to make it sound impalatable [sic]. And the fact it’s going to cost much less money.”
Trump was also noncommittal when asked about whether the United States would stay in the Iran nuclear deal.
The president promised to tear up the Iran nuclear agreement on his first day in office, but has since failed to follow through on that promise. He said he feels Iran is breaking the spirit of the agreement, but hasn’t actually broken the letter of it.
“It’s possible that we won’t,” Trump said when asked if he’d stay in the agreement.
