WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump would be "proud" to shut down the government if he can't get taxpayer money to build a wall on the southern border, he told House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer in an extraordinary Oval Office sparring session held partly in front of reporters Tuesday.
"We have to have a wall. ... I will take the mantle of shutting it down. I will shut it down for border security," Trump said during the meeting, in which the leaders exchanged political barbs with cameras rolling.
"Elections have consequences, Mr. President," Schumer said, noting that Democrats seized the House majority during last month's midterm election.
The remarkable Oval Office appearance came at the start of what was supposed to be a negotiation over how to fund a portion of the government by the Dec. 21 deadline, and whether the border wall would be approved as part of the package.
Instead the three leaders chastised, corrected and interrupted one another repeatedly, a preview of what a divided government will look like next year when Democrats control the House. The meeting, which ended not long after the press was escorted away, did not appear to resolve the standoff.
Democrats have offered $1.6 billion for border security but Trump is demanding $5 billion for a wall. During the campaign, Trump promised Mexico would pay for the wall.
The tense exchange could make a holiday shutdown � in which a small portion of government operations would cease _ more likely. Trump fully accepted political responsibility for a shutdown, giving Democrats little reason to give in to his demands or help provide votes to avoid one.
Schumer, D-N.Y., and Pelosi, D-Calif., repeatedly made the case against shutting down the government, saying it would only hurt American workers and the economy.
Yet even as Trump seemed to embrace a shutdown, he has also been preparing his conservative base for the possibility that he won't get funding for the wall. Earlier Tuesday, the president tweeted that the military would build the wall if Democrats didn't agree to fund it. He also claimed falsely that much of the wall he promised has already been built.
The spending bill marks the last opportunity Trump would have to get his border wall approved while Republicans control both the House and Senate. Republican leaders on Capitol Hill have largely deferred to Trump on the issue, saying the president needs to decide whether he is willing to shut down the government to get his top campaign promise through Congress. Most Republicans on Capitol Hill would like to avoid a shutdown, which typically hurts the party in control of Congress.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said Tuesday a shutdown may be more likely as a result of the standoff. "I think it is a step in that direction," Shelby said. "We've got another eight or 10 days. We might come together and we might not."
But at least some Republicans seem ready to back up Trump.
"Great job sticking to your guns on border security, Mr. President," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., tweeted after the meeting aired. "You are right to want more border security funding including Wall money. They are WRONG to say no."
Schumer and Pelosi previously said they will not provide the votes to fund the border wall, particularly after Democrats flipped 40 seats in the House in last month's midterm elections. Any legislation would require some Democratic support to get through the Senate.
Democrats have put two offers on the table, neither of which has wall funding: $1.6 billion in "fencing" along the southern border or a continuation of last year's spending levels for the Department of Homeland Security, about $1.3 billion.
