Dems to put the ball back in Trump’s court

Democratic lawmakers unveiled plans to emerge out of the partial shutdown of the federal government by examining and voting on an appropriations bill as soon as they take control of the House of Representatives -- on Thursday. But the bill’s future appeared uncertain. The text does not include financing for the US-Mexican border wall sought by President Donald Trump to halt illegal immigration.

In a tweet taunting Democrats for their refusal to fund the border fence, the Republican president said: “The Democrats will probably submit a Bill, being cute as always, which gives everything away but gives NOTHING to Border Security, namely the Wall. “You see, without the Wall there can be no Border Security - the Tech ‘stuff’ is just, by comparison, meaningless bells & whistles.” He also reiterated his claim -- so far unproven -- that Mexico was paying for the border wall through the new trade deal struck between all three North American countries (Canada, Mexico and the United States).

“I’m in the Oval Office. Democrats, come back from vacation now and give us the votes necessary for Border Security, including the Wall,” Trump tweeted. Congress is in recess for the New Year’s holiday but will reopen on Thursday, while Trump has stayed in the White House through the year-end festivities, shelving his annual vacation to his private Florida golf resort amid the impasse. To retaliate over the Democrats’ refusal to fund the wall, Trump is refusing to sign a wider spending package.

The standoff has turned into a test of strength between Trump and the Democrats, who will enter the new Congress in 2019 as the majority in the House of Representatives, after a decisive victory in the November midterm elections. “No, we are not giving up. We have to have border security and the wall is a big part of border security, the biggest part,” he told Fox News. Trump says a wall is needed along the whole border to keep out migrants trying to enter the country illegally, casting them as an “invasion” force of dangerous criminals. On Monday, he called the border “an ‘Open Wound,’ where drugs, criminals (including human traffickers) and illegals would pour into our Country.”