Trump's $5 billion border wall demand threatens another shutdown

Donald Trump is once again demanding $5 billion in border wall funding in the spending bill Congress needs to pass this fall. Senate Republicans are not happy with this demand, seeing it as a recipe for another damaging government shutdown.

“I think the biggest problem is the wall funding,” a Republican lawmaker told The Hill. “They want $5 billion. I don’t think they’re going to get $5 billion for the wall.” Not with a Democratic House. With the White House pressing hard, though, both for wall funding and against any Democratic priorities such as non-defense, non-wall spending, a shutdown looks more likely.

”I don’t think anybody wants to go through what we went through last year,” a Republican senator told The Hill, but … is that true of Trump? From what his top aides such as acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney are reportedly saying in talks with Senate Republicans, it seems like Trump might be willing to shut down the government again, or at least take us to the brink.