WASHINGTON �� The White House appeared ready to press for its proposed Mexican border wall in this week's must-pass spending bill, setting up a clash with Democrats that may make a government shutdown next weekend more likely.
"The Democrats don't want money from budget going to border wall despite the fact that it will stop drugs and very bad MS 13 gang members," President Donald Trump said in previewing the budget fight on Twitter Sunday. (MS-13 is a criminal gang of mostly Central American origin.) Mexico will pay for the wall "at a later date," Trump said.
In a separate Twitter message, Trump said Democrats need "big money" to keep the Affordable Care Act health care law going �� something the administration has offered in return for border-wall funding.
White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said he expects money earmarked in the spending bill to be enough "to move forward" with Trump's proposed wall. "We expect money for border security in this bill. And it ought to be," Priebus said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether Trump will sign a government-funding bill that doesn't include money for the border wall, Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said only, "We don't know yet."
Mulvaney accused Democrats of being obstructionists on the funding and holding national security hostage.
Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that for Trump to consider shutting down the government over border-wall funding "would be the height of irresponsibility." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on NBC that the wall "is, in my view, immoral, expensive, unwise."
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said on CNN that he suspects Trump "will be insistent on the funding" for the wall. "It goes without saying that the president has been pretty straightforward about his desire and the need for a border wall," he said.
Congressional Democrats, whose votes would be needed in the Senate and possibly also the House to pass such a spending bill, have said they won't support money for Trump's border wall.
Ryan said details of a spending bill deal would be announced when House members return to Washington Tuesday after their two-week spring recess.
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(Mark Niquette and Ben Brody contributed to this report.)
