Trump to New York Times: I’ll Build the Wall, I’ll Get it Finished

US President Donald J Trump

“I’ll continue to build the wall, and we’ll get the wall finished” – Trump

Investigations into US President Donald Trump’s alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 election continue to deliver daily developments and drama, the latest being a disclosure by the Financial Times reported Tuesday that Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin for about 15 minutes without a U.S. note taker or translator at the G-20 summit in November.

Rod Rosenstein as special counsel overseeing an ongoing investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election

Trump, who dismissed the probes, continued to talk about a proposed border wall and called the talks in Congress about wall funding – the issue behind the recent government shutdown – a “waste of time”.

The Democrats have refused to provide the $5.7 billion (£4.4bn) Trump sought for the wall, arguing it is immoral and ineffective.

In an exclusive with the New York Times, Thursday, the president declared that he has all but given up on negotiating with Congress and will build the wall on his own.

“I’ll continue to build the wall, and we’ll get the wall finished,” the president said.

The Congressional divide led to the longest government shutdown in US history following Trump’s refusal to approve any budget unless it included $5.7bn to fund the wall.

But late Friday, the Senate and House unanimously passed a bill to temporarily end the shutdown, after which President Trump signed the bill into law.

That led to a tweet by Trump who made clear that his decision was “in no way a concession” but to take “care of the millions of people who were getting badly hurt by the shutdown”.

The government is set to resume on 15 February if no budget can be agreed.

On the Russia inquiry, Trump told the New York Times that he received assurances from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

“Rod told me I’m not a target of the investigation,” Trump said.

You might also like