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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Sam Levin in Oakland and Erin Durkin in New York

US government shutdown 'all but certain' as Congress adjourns – as it happened

The House and Senate have adjourned without a deal, and the government is set for its shutdown in just two hours. We’re ending our live coverage for the day, thanks for following along.

You can read our highlights here and catch up on the shutdown here:

When the partial shutdown goes into effect in roughly three hours, it will apparently be the first time in four decades that it has been closed three times in one year.

AP has published a review of recent shutdowns in the US.

Summary

Here’s what you need to know about the looming government shutdown and other major political news on this busy Friday before the holidays:

  • A government shutdown is all but certain to begin at midnight in a few hours after the House adjourned without reaching a funding agreement.
  • The shutdown stems from Donald Trump’s demands for funding for his proposed border wall.
  • The shutdown means roughly 800,000 federal employees will stop getting paid, and about 380,000 of them would stop working, according to a Senate committee report.
  • “Essential” employees who will continue working without pay include Transportation Security Administration screeners, prison guards, FBI agents and border patrol agents.
  • There could be chaos at national parks during the holidays as a result of the shutdown.
  • Trump, who previously said he would be “proud” to shut down the government, tried to blame the Democrats.
  • The House is expected to reconvene at noon on Saturday.
  • Wall Street stocks fell in volatile trading on Friday, with the Nasdaq, Dow and S&P 500 on pace for their worst month since 2009.
  • The supreme court on Friday also rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to enforce a ban on asylum for immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border outside of official crossings.
  • US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery on her lung to remove cancerous growths.
  • Trump signed into law the First Step Act, a prison and sentencing reform bill with strong bipartisan support.
  • A US intelligence report released Friday said that Russia, China and Iran “conducted influence activities and messaging campaigns” targeting recent US elections.
  • Incoming White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney once called Trump’s views on a border wall “simplistic” and “absurd and almost childish,” according to a 2015 interview unearthed by CNN.

With the shutdown now just four hours away, a reminder of Trump’s earlier comments taking ownership of it:

I am proud to shut down the government for border security ...because the people of this country don’t want criminals and people that have lots of problems and drugs pouring into our country. So I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not going to blame you for it.”

At midnight, a “partial” shutdown is expected to go into effect. Here’s what that means:

The threatened shutdown is partial because 75% of government funding has already been approved for the budget year that started in October. That includes money for the military, which would be unaffected by a shutdown. It’s the other 25% of government spending that’s at issue, but a shutdown could cut off spending for nine of the 15 cabinet-level federal departments, including Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation, Interior, Agriculture and State.

Shutdown virtually guaranteed

It is now virtually guaranteed that the shutdown will begin at midnight tonight. Meanwhile, here’s the latest tweet from Trump’s account, which takes a very different tone from his comments the rest of the day:

The latest from AP:

The House has adjourned without a deal on spending, virtually guaranteeing a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday.

Senators are also being told there will be no further votes Friday as talks continue.

President Donald Trump’s team was on Capitol Hill late Friday trying to broker a compromise as he pushes for billions of dollars in border wall funding.

Without a deal, funding for parts of the government will expire at midnight.

Updated

House adjourns without an agreement

The House has officially adjourned, meaning the shutdown in a few hours is all but certain, Reuters is reporting. That means funding is expected to end for parts of the federal government at midnight.

It appears that the Senate won’t be holding any more votes tonight, either:

The shutdown appears increasingly likely:

Unclear how many reporters have taken this advice...

Trump has tweeted a photo of himself reportedly signing “many Bills” in the Oval Office. He has also complained about the Democrats and his “cancelled” trip to Florida.

It’s possible he could still travel to Mar-a-Lago this weekend:

It’s unclear if any ongoing negotiations between the White House and Democrats will prevent the shutdown from going into effect in a few hours.

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Hours away from the shutdown over Trump’s demand for border wall money, the Washington Post has this helpful reminder about the lack of popularity for a wall among voters:

A Quinnipiac University poll released this week found that more than half of Americans oppose building a wall. That opposition has narrowed over the course of Trump’s presidency, but we’re far from a point at which most (much less “all”) Americans back the proposal.

The poll clearly contradicts the White House press secretary’s claim today, saying, “It’s something that all of America wants to see happen.”

As we noted earlier, CNN also reported today that incoming White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney once called Trump’s views on a border wall and immigration “simplistic”:

Senators push for negotiations to avoid shutdown

Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer have spoken in the Senate – not much of a significant update, but the senators are pushing for continued negotiations with the White House:

This means the government is still heading to a shutdown at this time, and there hasn’t been any agreement on funding. If the shutdown moves forward, it’s unclear how long it could last – and that could be part of the ongoing negotiations this evening.

The AP’s summary on the latest developments and the role of the vice president:

Vice President Mike Pence has cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate to advance legislation to prevent a partial government shutdown and provide funding for President Donald Trump’s border wall.

Pence’s vote advanced the 47-47 tally Friday after a marathon, five-hour voting session in the Senate that dragged on as senators rushed back to Washington.

The move doesn’t immediately end the threat of a partial federal shutdown at midnight Friday. But it kick-starts negotiations as Congress tries to find a resolution to Trump’s demand for the wall. Senators say they won’t vote on a final bill to fund the government until Trump and congressional leaders all agree to a deal.

Summary

With a shutdown potentially six hours away, here’s a recap of what would happen if it’s not averted:

  • About 800,000 federal employees would stop getting paid if a shutdown happens, according to a report prepared by Democrats on the Senate appropriations committee.
  • Of those, about 380,000 would stop working. That includes almost all of Nasa and Housing and Urban Development staff, 80% of the National Parks Service, and more than 50,000 workers at the Internal Revenue Service.
  • The other 420,000 workers, considered “essential”, would still have to report to work if a shutdown occurs, but won’t get pay checks as long as the impasse continues.
  • Those who would still have to work include Transportation Security Administration screeners, prison guards, FBI agents and border patrol agents.
  • Mail would be delivered, social security checks would go out and TSA screeners would staff airports.
  • National attractions, like the Washington Monument, Smithsonian museums, and Statue of Liberty would probably be closed.
  • If the shutdown went on long-term, the Federal Housing Administration may delay the approval of home loans. The USDA may shutter farm service centers. Payments to local public housing agencies could be delayed. Funding for food stamps and free school lunches could conceivably run out.
  • Federal workers would likely get paid back eventually, but it would require approval from Congress.

See more here:

“Chaos may reign for the thousands of visitors planning to take snow hikes, rock climbing trips and sightseeing visits to US national parks over the winter holidays, reports Erin McCormick from our office in San Francisco, if Donald Trump’s government shutdown goes forward at midnight on Friday.”

Erin continues:

Park conservation groups say it is likely to mirror past shutdowns – with confusion about which parks are open, closed facilities, a lack of protections for guests and wildlife, and many disappointed visitors.

In the last brief government shutdown in January, which lasted only 48 hours, the national park service directed staff to keep the parks as accessible as possible even though thousands of park employees were ordered not to come to work. One-third of the parks shut down altogether. In others, facilities such as visitors’ centers and bathrooms were shuttered, while the few remaining staff worked without paychecks to provide basic safety services.

During that shutdown, 21,000 park service employees were furloughed leaving just 3,298 “essential staff” to manage 80 million acres of national park lands, according to the National Parks Conservation association (NPCA).

Erin’s report is part of the Guardian’s This Land is Your Land series, which focuses on America’s public lands and the threats posed to them by the Trump administration. You can find lots more on the subject here.

As the wait continues for an announcement in the Senate, the president has tweeted this “design of our Steel Slat Barrier”, which he said is “totally effective while at the same time beautiful!”:

Some background from the AP about the “steel slats”:

The “big beautiful wall” has now become “steel slats.”

President Donald Trump is tweaking the words he uses to describe the barrier he’s hoping to build along the U.S.-Mexico border, in part because Democrats appear more amenable to approving money for “fencing” rather than a “wall.”

As the budget standoff has played out, Trump has adjusted the way he refers to his long-promised wall, which was the centerpiece of his 2016 campaign...

He later praised the House for “approving strong border security and the money necessary to take care of the barrier, wall or steel slats,” adding, “Whatever you want to call it, it’s all the same.”

That was a far cry from the campaign, when Trump promised to build a “big, beautiful wall” made of concrete, rebar and steel across the length of the southern border. Back then, he lashed out at the suggestion that what he was proposing had anything in common with mere fencing...

Updated

This vote is apparently on track to be the longest Senate vote in the modern history of the chamber:

US intelligence: Russia, China and Iran conducted influence activities

The director of national intelligence has just announced its report on foreign interference in the election:

At this time, the Intelligence Community does not have intelligence reporting that indicates any compromise of our nation’s election infrastructure that would have prevented voting, changed vote counts, or disrupted the ability to tally votes. The activity we did see was consistent with what we shared in the weeks leading up to the election. Russia, and other foreign countries, including China and Iran, conducted influence activities and messaging campaigns targeted at the United States to promote their strategic interests.

The announcement said the office did not make an assessment of the impact these activities had on the 2018 election outcome.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and minority leader, Chuck Schumer, may come forward soon to talk about some kind of possible agreement:

It’s unclear if the president has changed his position:

Sam Levin here, taking over our live coverage as we are roughly seven hours away from a possible shutdown. The president has canceled his planned Mar-a-Lago trip, but the first lady is continuing on with her holiday plans:

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are expected to stay with the president:

The Guardian’s art critic, Jonathan Jones, has cast his eye over Donald and Melania Trump’s official Christmas portrait. It’s not that he’s not impressed, as such, as that his main impression is one of, well, fear.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s Christmas Portrait.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s Christmas Portrait. Photograph: UPI/Barcroft Images

“Can it be that hard,” Jonathan asks, “to create a cosy image of the presidential couple, perhaps in front of a roaring hearth, maybe in seasonal knitwear?

Evidently it can, for Jonathan continues:

Or is this quasi-dictatorial image exactly what the president wants to project? Look on my Christmas trees, ye mighty, and despair! If so, it fuels suspicions that it is only the checks and balances of a 230-year-old constitution that are keeping America from the darkest of political fates.

Of the White House Christmas trees, meanwhile, Jonathan writes:

Instead of a homely symbol of midwinter cheer, these disciplined arboreal ranks with their uniform decorations are arrayed like massed soldiers or colossal columns designed by Albert Speer.

And there’s more. Short version: “Yikes.”

Updated

Stocks plunge on back of political uncertainty

Here’s a taste of Dom’s report on a choppy day on Wall Street…

Turmoil in Washington injected further pessimism into US stock markets on Friday, as the Nasdaq, Dow and S&P 500 kept pace for their worst month since 2009.

“The market continues to react to the possibility of a government shutdown, fear of a domestic and global slowdown and general displeasure about the direction of Fed policy,” said Ryan Larson, head of US equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management in Chicago.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq sank to a 15-month low, falling as much as 21.5% from its 29 August high. The benchmark S&P 500 index, already on pace for its biggest percentage decline in December since the Great Depression, hit its lowest level since August 2017. The Dow Industrials fell to the lowest level since October 2017.

All three indexes swung between losses and gains of more than 1%. They received a momentary boost after the New York Fed president, John Williams, said on CNBC that the Fed was open to reassessing its views and monitoring market signals that economic growth could fall short of expectations.

That news helped drive shares higher oversea: in London the FTSE closed nine points higher at 6,721. But those gains soon evaporated as economic worries again prevailed.

Williams’ dovish comments could point to hidden concerns among some Fed policymakers, said Tim Ghriskey, investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.

“[Williams’ comments] helped the markets for a while early on, and then it was just a sell-off after that,” Ghriskey said. “Part of that is when the Fed says something like they’re re-looking at things, there’s a concern that maybe the Fed knows something that we don’t know.”

Updated

Meanwhile in the Senate, a chamber literally racked with suspense but also notably not very full of senators, it is now being reported by CNN among others that Pence, Kushner and Mulvaney have spoken to the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, in private. The Trump admin team, we are told, then went into talks with itself. The tension is almost literally measurable.

Reuters does its best to up it by offering up a brief report on remarks by John Cornyn, the No2 Republican in the Senate.

There may be room for compromise on a government funding bill but US President Donald Trump would not back any measure that lacked money for his proposed border wall, [Cornyn] said, hours ahead of a midnight deadline to fund part of the federal government.

“The president is not in the mood for zeroing that out,” Cornyn told reporters, referring to funds to protect the US-Mexico border.

Hard to see immediately what “room for compromise” he’s talking about, then.

All this while the US markets have closed after their worst week in a decade, adding to Donald Trump’s woes. Business editor Dominic Rushe will be along shortly with more on that.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had cancerous growths removed from her lungs, voted from her hospital bed to uphold a block on Donald Trump’s restrictions on asylum, NBC reports.

The 5-4 decision let stand a lower court’s order temporarily blocking Trump’s ban on applying for asylum for people who have crossed the US border illegally.

Donald Trump appears to be bringing in some reinforcements. Vice President Mike Pence - who would case a deciding vote in the case of a tie - incoming White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and Trump’s son in law and adviser Jared Kushner, are on hand at the Senate.

Income White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney once called Donald Trump’s views on a border wall and immigration “simplistic” and “absurd and almost childish,” according to a 2015 interview unearthed by CNN.

Mulvaney, tapped by trump as acting chief of staff to replace John Kelly, made the comments in an interview on WRHI radio in South Carolina.

“The fence doesn’t solve the problem. Is it necessary to have one, sure? Would it help? Sure. But to just say build the darn fence and have that be the end of an immigration discussion is absurd and almost childish for someone running for president to take that simplistic of [a] view,” Mulvaney said.

Senator Jon Tester just arrived from Montana and voted no on the motion to proceed, according to the Daily Beast.

“Nine and a half hours,” he said shaking his head, referring to how long it took him to get back to Washington for the vote.

The Supreme Court has refused to revive Donald Trump’s bar on applying for asylum for people who cross the border illegally, Reuters reports. The vote was 5-4.

A federal judge in California blocked the rules refusing asylum to migrants who cross the US southern border illegally, marking a significant blow to the president’s crackdown on immigration.

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s liberals in declining to overrule that decision.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has found one thing the body can agree on.

Some Senate Republicans are proposing to reauthorize protections for young immigrants brought to the country as children, in a last minute compromise to get funding for Donald Trump’s border wall and avert a government shutdown.

Republicans at a private lunch meeting proposed reauthorizing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Trump terminated, in exchange for Democratic support for $5.7bn for a wall, the Hill reports.

The last ditch compromise idea comes as a motion to begin debate on a budget bill with $5.7bn in wall money remains stalled in the Senate floor.

“I think one that could — if we’re going to reopen this thing to add more money for a wall or steel slats, or whatever you want to call it, then throw DACA in too,” Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake said, according to the Hill. He said several colleagues support that position.

Flake voted no on the motion to proceed.

The tally now stand at 43-45 in the Senate on a motion to start debate on a funding bill with $5.7bn for the border wall.

Leaders are holding the vote open to allow more senators to vote as they arrive back from aborted holiday travel. At least one senator, Republican Bob Corker, is present but has not voted. He has been critical of Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to force a shutdown over wall funding.

Bottom line: Republicans may not even have the 50 votes to begin debate on the bill.

Never fear - the North American Aerospace Defense Command will still track Santa Claus, as it does every year, if there is a government shutdown.

“Military personnel who conduct NORAD Tracks Santa are supported by approximately 1,500 volunteers who make the program possible each and every year,” the agency said.

Trump cancels Mar-a-Lago travel plans

Donald Trump has officially canceled his plans to travel today to Mar-a-Lago, Politico reports.

The White House had said Trump would not go forward with the planned trip to his Florida golf club if there is a government shutdown.

Updated

Federal workers will still receive their next paycheck if the government partially shuts down at midnight.

The next check covers pay for December 9 through December 22, the Office of Management and Budget says, per the Hill.

So if the government shuts down at midnight, federal workers will still be due pay for all of those days except Dec. 22, Saturday. They would get a check that would subtract one day’s pay.

“As necessary, agencies and payroll providers may finalize the processing of paychecks for the December 9-22 biweekly pay period as an orderly shutdown activity,” the OMB guidance said.

Those checks will go out between December 28 and January 3. If a shutdown lasts long enough, about 800,000 federal employees won’t get paid for the next pay period.

Trump 'totally prepared for a very long shutdown'

Donald Trump says the odds of a government shutdown are “probably pretty good,” per CNN.

Speaking at a bill signing, he said: “It’s really up to the Democrats. Totally up to the Democrats as to whether or not we have the shutdown. It’s possible we will have a shutdown. I would say the chances are probably very good because I don’t think Democrats care so much about this issue.”

“We’re totally prepared for a very long shutdown,” Trump added, per CBS.

Updated

Sen. Chuck Grassley says there will “probably” be a government shutdown, per CNN.

“I was in an hour discussion on that and there’s no conclusion,” the Iowa Republican said when asked about next steps after the Senate’s expected rejection of a government funding bill that contains money for Donald Trump’s proposed border wall.

Sen. Lindsey Graham is calling for immediate Senate hearings on Donald Trump’s decision to pull all US troops out of Syria, Reuters reports.

Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said he wants Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to testify at the hearing.

Mattis quit in protest after Trump’s decision, sending a resignation letter citing fundamental disagreements on the US role in the world and treatment of its allies.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has cancelled an upcoming trip to Israel after submitting his resignation, Axios reports.

Mattis had planned to travel to Israel next week for talks on Syria and Iran.

The defense secretary plans to stay in his post through February.

Mattis will not travel to Iran.
Mattis will not travel to Iran. Photograph: Virginia Mayo/AP

Updated

The Senate is now voting on whether to begin debate on the government funding bill that contains $5.7bn for a border wall.

That motion needs only 50 votes to proceed, whereas ending debate and moving on to a final vote will need 60 votes.

One Republican, Jeff Flake of Arizona, voted no, according to CNN.

The vote is being held open while Senators continue to return from aborted holiday travel, Senator Bob Corker told CNN.

Corker, a Tennesee Republican, hasn’t voted yet and hasn’t said how he will vote.

Trump signs criminal justice bill

Donald Trump has signed the criminal justice reform bill that passed Congress in a rare act of bipartisanship, per CBS.

The bill, called the First Step Act, will reduce mandatory minimum sentences for a number of drug-related crimes, allow judges to circumvent federal mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent offenders when they see fit, expand rehabilitative opportunities for federal prisoners. It also bans the shackling of pregnant women.

Updated

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, returning from a meeting with Donald Trump, said GOP senators had a “good conversation” with the President and “we are going to continue to be talking about a way forward,” according to CNN.

McConnell then spoke on the Senate floor, urging lawmakers to approve a government funding bill with $5.7bn for a border wall.

“Let’s not end the year the way we began. With another shut down over the issue of illegal immigration. Remember this back in January?” he said. “Let’s pass it and let’s finish our work for this year. Let’s secure our country.”

Donald Trump, chatting with senators at a bill signing ceremony at the White House, took a shot at Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke over talk he might run for president in 2020.

“I thought you were supposed to win before you run for president,” he said, according to a pool report.

O’Rourke lost in a senate race against Sen. Ted Cruz.

More senators are blaming a “hissy fit” thrown by conservative radio hosts for the country’s current perch on the brink of a government shutdown.

“I am astonished. We had a deal... and then because Rush Limbaugh had a hissy fit we’re back here today,” said Sen. Joe Donnelly, according to a BuzzFeed reporter.

North Carolina’s top elections official made a plea almost two years ago for criminal charges against operatives now at the center of an absentee ballot fraud scandal, according to a letter obtained by the Associated Press.

State Board of Elections Executive Director Kim Strach warned in the January 2017 letter that if those involved in an illegal operation to collect absentee ballots from voters in Bladen County were not prosecuted, the violations were likely to continue.

Charges of ballot fraud in the county have now thrown the results of a close Congressional race in the state into a turmoil, with the possibility a new election will be required.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has cancerous growths removed from lungs

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has had cancerous growth removed from her lungs, the court says.

It is the 85-year-old Ginsburg’s third bout with cancer. She has beaten the disease twice before.

Updated

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation will continue even if the government shuts down, per BuzzFeed. They are funded by a permanent appropriation not affected by the spending bills currently in limbo.

Bob Corker: "Tyranny" of radio talk show hosts has taken over

Sen. Bob Corker says Donald Trump is succumbing to the “tyranny of radio hosts,” per CNN, after criticism from conservative hosts like Rush Limbaugh apparently prompted him to reverse course and refuse to sign a governments funding bill without money for his border wall.

“We have two talk-radio show hosts who basically influenced the president, and we’re in a shutdown mode. It’s just—that’s tyranny, isn’t it?” Tennesee Republican Corker added, per the Daily Beast. “I mean, this is a juvenile place we find ourselves.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) made a similar point, saying Fox News host Sean Hannity appears to be calling the shots.

Updated

McConnell rejects nuclear option for wall funding vote

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected Donald Trump’s call to use the “nuclear option” of ending the filibuster to pass funding for a border wall.

“The Leader has said for years that the votes are not there in the Conference to use the nuclear option. Just this morning, several Senators put out statements confirming their opposition, and confirming that there is not a majority in the conference to go down that road,” said McConnell communications director David Popp, according to the Hill.

Another statement in support of keeping the Senate filibuster, from Tennessee Republican Senator Lamar Alexander.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats says he is “deeply saddened” by the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

He said in a statement:

I was deeply saddened to learn the news that General Mattis will resign from his post as Secretary of Defense at the end of February.

As Director of National Intelligence, I have had the unique privilege to be part of our Nation’s National Security Team, and to work with Jim Mattis on issues of critical importance to our national defense. The experience and sound judgement that Secretary Mattis has brought to our decision-making process is invaluable. His leadership of our military won the admiration of our troops and respect of our allies and adversaries.

In every aspect, Jim Mattis is a national treasure. He will be sorely missed. Thank you, Jim, for your lifetime of service to our nation.

Trump throwing 'temper tantrum', says Chuck Schumer

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer says Donald Trump owns the government shutdown, posting video of Trump himself saying so.

“The Senate UNANIMOUSLY passed a bipartisan solution to avoid a shutdown. Then you threw another temper tantrum and convinced the House to ignore that compromise,” Schumer said.

Updated

Grand Canyon will stay open if government shuts down

The Grand Canyon will stay open in the event of a government shutdown, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey tells CNN:

“Regardless of what happens in Washington, the Grand Canyon will not close on our watch. Arizona knows how to work together. We have a plan in place and we’re ready to go. If you have plans to visit the Grand Canyon over the weekend, keep ‘em. The Grand Canyon will remain open.”

Doug Ducey said: ‘The Grand Canyon will remain open.’
Doug Ducey said: ‘The Grand Canyon will remain open.’ Photograph: Stephen Yelverton Photography/Getty Images

Updated

Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump is “empowering ISIS” and “playing into Russia & Iran’s hands” by pulling US troops out of Syria.

“This President is putting our national security at grave risk,” she said on Twitter.

Another Republican senator, Jeff Flake of Arizona, says he won’t back ending the Senate filibuster to pass border wall funding.

Trump blames Democrats for imminent shutdown

Donald Trump, who repeatedly said he would be the one to shut down the government over border wall money and would not blame Democrats for it, now...blames Democrats for it.

Updated

Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria was made hastily, without consulting his national security team or allies, and over strong objections from virtually everyone involved in the fight against the Islamic State, the Associated Press reports:

Trump stunned his Cabinet, lawmakers and much of the world with the move by rejecting the advice of his top aides and agreeing to a withdrawal in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, two officials briefed on the matter said.

The Dec. 14 call, described by officials who were not authorized to discuss the decision-making process publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, is a view into a Trump decision with profound consequences, including the resignation of widely respected Defense Secretary Jim Mattis...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arranged the Dec. 14 call a day after he had unsuccessfully sought clarity from Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu about Erdogan’s threats to launch a military operation against U.S.-backed Kurdish rebels in northeast Syria, where American forces are based.

Pompeo, Mattis and other members of the national security team prepared a list of talking points for Trump to tell Erdogan to back off, the officials said.

But the officials said Trump, who had previously accepted such advice and convinced the Turkish leader not to attack the Kurds and put U.S. troops at risk, ignored the script. Instead, the president sided with Erdogan.

The officials said the conversation set off a frantic, four-day scramble to convince the president either to reverse or delay the decision to give the military and Kurdish forces time to prepare for an orderly withdrawal. Trump, however, was unmoved, they said.

Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, says he will not support using the so-called “nuclear option” to end the filibuster and pass border wall funding over Democrats’ objections.

Sarah Sanders: Mattis did the right thing

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis did the “right thing” by resigning over his differences with Donald Trump, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Friday.

“At the end of the day, the American people elected one person to be the commander-in-chief and to make decisions,” Sanders said on Fox News. “The president listens to all of his national security team, of which is a big group. He takes their advice. And at the end of the day, he makes the decision.”

“If Secretary Mattis doesn’t feel like he’s the right person to fill that job, I think it was the right thing and an honorable thing that he did in stepping aside,” she said.

Sanders said Mattis and Trump have a “good relationship” but “disagree on a number of fronts.”

Sarah Sanders said: ‘I think it was the right thing and an honorable thing that he did in stepping aside.’
Sarah Sanders said: ‘I think it was the right thing and an honorable thing that he did in stepping aside.’ Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Donald Trump is set to meet with Senate Republicans at the White House at 10:30am over the government funding battle, per C-Span.

“If they don’t get this done, then he’s shutting down the government,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News.

If there is a shutdown, Trump will remain in Washington instead of traveling to his Mar a Lago resort in Florida, Sanders said.

Updated

Donald Trump is tweeting prodigiously this morning about the potential shutdown. He’s pushing Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell to “use the Nuclear Option” to get approval for money for his border wall.

That refers to changing the Senate rules to end the filibuster, and allow bills to be approved with 51 votes, instead of 60.

McConnell has said repeatedly he will never do that.

Trump threatens 'shutdown to last for a very long time'

Good morning. The federal government is careening toward a partial shutdown at midnight, with Donald Trump threatening “a shutdown that will last for a very long time” if he doesn’t get money for his border wall.

The Senate is set to meet at noon, but there’s little chance they’ll approve the bill passed by the House last night to fund the government and provide $5.7bn for the wall.

Senators, who had scattered across the country after passing a clean funding extension they thought would be accepted on a bipartisan basis, are scrambling to get back to the Capitol - or in other cases, not bothering. Stay tuned.

Updated

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