WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump made a surprise appearance Thursday in the White House briefing room, congratulating Speaker Nancy Pelosi on taking back the gavel and predicting they will work together on substantial legislation.
"It's a very, very great achievement and hopefully we're going to work together and get lots of things done, like infrastructure," Trump said.
"I think it'll work out and be a little bit differently than a lot of people are thinking," he said, referring to forecasts from both parties that the two cannot work together.
Trump, flanked by federal law enforcement personnel he described as helping secure the southern border, used his appearance to make another pitch for his border barrier.
Again trying to give Democrats what he called last month "an out," the president said one does not have to call the proposed structure a "wall."
"Whatever you want to call it," Trump said as senior Democrats refuse to agree to any partial government shutdown-ending package that would specifically allocate funds for a "wall."
Trump in recent days has referred to his proposal as "artistically designed steel slats" or even a fence in places. The latter echoes what some senior Democrats say their party would support.
