Trump goes to Congress in deepening row over border wall

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump met with congressional leaders Wednesday to discuss his demand to build a wall along the US-Mexican border, but the row -- which has sparked a prolonged government shutdown -- only appeared to deepen, with no sign of flexibility on either side.

Trump sat down to lunch on Capitol Hill with Republicans -- a meeting to rally his troops.

Later, he was to sit down with both Republican and opposition Democratic leaders in the White House.

The president, who has made the building of a Mexico border wall a keystone of his domestic policy, looks increasingly short of options as Democrats dig their heels in, calling the wall "immoral."

Trump wants $5.7 billion to fund a wall he says is needed to keep out dangerous illegal immigrants, drug dealers and people smugglers.

Democrats say the wall would have little impact on real border problems and that Trump´s tough approach has instead created a humanitarian crisis.

At the White House, Trump told journalists that if he cannot get his way, he could declare a national emergency -- a measure that allows him to bypass Congress and take the wall funds he needs from the military.

"I think we might work a deal, and if we don´t, we might go that route," he said, insisting he has the "absolute right" to declare an emergency, despite warnings in Congress that this could be seen as serious presidential overreach.

Game of chicken

The main leverage Trump and Republican lawmakers have used so far to pressure Democrats is to block a series of unrelated spending bills funding other areas of government.

That has shut down large parts of the government, leaving some 800,000 federal workers and contractors without salaries for nearly three weeks already.

Trump says he won´t flinch in what has turned into a huge game of political chicken.

"Whatever it takes," he told journalists, when asked how long the shutdown could go on for.

US media reports indicate that some of Trump´s Republicans are starting to waver over his strongarm tactics, as the impact worsens for those whose jobs have been put on ice.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, sought to pile on her own pressure, accusing Trump of not wanting to compromise.

"We have been negotiating. The White House seems to move the goal posts. Every time they come with a proposal, they walk away from it," she told journalists.

'American blood' speech

Trump´s triumphant 2016 campaign relied heavily on his "build the wall" slogan and since then, he has pushed the idea that the United States is being overwhelmed by dangerous migrants who enter the country illegally.

But with Democrats winning control of the House in November midterm elections, Trump´s wall push has come up against a wall of its own.

This week, an increasingly frustrated president is trying to seize the initiative.

On Tuesday, he used a rare nationally televised prime-time speech from the Oval Office to paint the frontier as an open door to murderers.

"How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?" Trump said.

"For those who refuse to compromise in the name of border security, I would ask to imagine if it was your child, your husband, or your wife whose life was so cruelly shattered and totally broken," he said in the nine-minute speech.

Trump claimed Wednesday that his address had been a success.

And on Thursday, he will fly down to the southern border himself.

But senior Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer scoffed: "I don´t think he persuaded a soul with his talk last night. It was same old same old -- mistruths, divisiveness. Didn´t have the effect he had hoped."

Washington is now waiting for either side to make a move -- and to see whether Trump will dare invoke emergency powers.

"Neither side feel they can cave and not pay a terrible political price," Republican Senator Marco Rubio said on Fox News.

"Unfortunately, two things caught in the middle are securing our borders, and the men and women in federal government," he added.