Democratic leaders are due to sit down with President Donald Trump later on Tuesday in order to hammer out a plan to prevent the looming closure of a spate of US government agencies, according to Fox News.
The meeting comes after Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi warned in a tweet against the partial government shutdown, something that she stressed the US "cannot afford".
Our country cannot afford a #TrumpShutdown, especially at this time of economic uncertainty. This holiday season, @realDonaldTrump knows full well that his wall proposal does not have the votes to pass the House & Senate, and should not be an obstacle to a bipartisan agreement.
— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) 10 декабря 2018 г.
President Trump "knows full well that his wall proposal does not have the votes to pass the House and Senate and should not be an obstacle to a bipartisan agreement”, Pelosi pointed out.
READ MORE: President Trump May Face Impeachment, Jail Term – House Democrats
One of the core disagreements is connected to the Congressional Democrats' refusal to fully support the $5 billion in border security funding, which includes a wall at the Mexican border proposed by Trump.
In a spate of tweets earlier on Tuesday, Trump spoke out on US border security and pledged that the US military would build the remaining sections of the wall on the Mexican border if the Democratic Party did not vote for it.
Last Friday, the US president urged Congress to provide all the money he wants for the wall, describing illegal migration as a "threat to the well-being of every American community". The US president has repeatedly pressed his Republican allies to secure the sum for the border wall initiative to live up to a campaign promise he made in 2016.
READ MORE: Mexico's New President Says Nobody Can Threaten His Country With Border Wall
Pelosi, for her part, reiterated that she and many other Democratic Party members perceive the wall as "immoral, ineffective, and expensive".
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, for his part, signalled a readiness to cooperate with Trump to avert the government shutdown, but said that the money should be spent on fencing and appropriate technology rather than the construction of a concrete wall.
"We do not want to let a Trump temper tantrum govern our policies or cause the shutdown of a government, which everyone on both sides of the aisle knows is the wrong idea", Schumer said, adding that if Trump "wants to shut down the government over Christmas over the wall, that's his decision".
READ MORE: 'Not Now, Not Ever': Mexico's Leader Responds to Trump's Border Wall Remark
In a separate development, the US House of Representatives approved and sent to the Senate a stopgap spending bill, which will be active until December 21 and which is aimed at preventing a government shutdown scheduled for that day.
In August, Trump said at a meeting with his supporters in the city of Tampa, Florida that the construction of large portions of the wall on the border with Mexico had already started. Earlier, he threatened to "shut down" the federal government if Democrats in Congress refuse to support his administration's demands on border security and the wall.
