Trump offers steel instead of concrete for border wall as compromise with Democrats

President Donald Trump says he will not bend in his demand for a wall along the US border with Mexico but notes that steel could be used instead of concrete to build the barrier as a potential compromise with Democrats who are refusing to fund it.

Trump made the remarks on Sunday at the start of the third week of a partial government shutdown that has forced nearly 800,000 federal employees to either work without pay or go on unpaid leave.

“This is a very important battle to win from the standpoint of safety, number one, (and) defining our country and who we are,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“The barrier, or the wall, can be of steel instead of concrete, if that helps people. It may be better,” he said.

Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s acting chief of staff, said the option would allow Democrats to continue refusing to fund the wall.

“That should help us move in the right direction,” Mulvaney told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Led by Vice President Mike Pence, the second round of talks with congressional aides on Sunday ended without any positive results like the first round held on Saturday.

PressTV-US shutdown talks fail, Pelosi plans new legislation

A meeting between top White House officials and senior congressional aides on Saturday ended without any agreement that could end the 15-day shutdown.

Trump tweeted Sunday that the group discussed details of "border security," describing the meeting as "productive."

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has called a border wall immoral, said after the negotiations that she felt Trump would like to "abolish Congress."

“The impression you get from the president is he would like to not only close government, build a wall, but also abolish Congress, so the only voice that mattered was his own,” Pelosi said in an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” host Jane Pauley.

Trump has earlier said that he was willing to keep the government closed for a year or more unless Democrats agree to fund his border wall.

The president has asked for $5.6 billion for the controversial wall, which he insists would stop illegal immigrants and drug traffickers from crossing the US border.

Democrats, however, say they won’t go higher than the current $1.3 billion level funding that the Department of Homeland Security receives for fencing and barrier repairs plus $300 million for cameras and other related technologies.

Trump’s issue of border wall ‘beyond reality’

Trump’s issue of a border wall is “beyond any reality,” says David William Pear, a political, economic and historical columnist.

“He is acting as if the US is under an invasion from South America and he keeps talking about safety and so forth,” Pear told Press TV on Sunday.

However, he said, “This whole issue has been built up way way beyond any reality. In fact the reality is that more undocumented immigrants are heading south and heading north.”

The government shutdown “could create a constitutional crisis if Trump actually goes through and causes state of emergency and starts trying to build the wall out of funds of the Defense Department,” he added.

He went on to say that “the presidents for quite some time have been acting imperial.”

“He is a symptom of all of the things that the US has been doing since the end of the World War II. We have been going down the wrong road and giving more and more power to the president and he has been abusing that power, but now we are in a real face-off.”

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