US Gov't Shutdown is Only Because of the 2020 Presidential Election - Trump

"The Shutdown is only because of the 2020 Presidential Election," Donald Trump wrote on Twitter. "The Democrats know they can't win based on all of the achievements of 'Trump,' so the are going all out on the desperatelyu needed Wall and Border Security — and Presidential Harassment."

​On Wednesday, Trump held a meeting with Republican and Democratic leaders amid a partial shutdown of the federal government to discuss the security situation at the US-Mexican border. He reiterated that the shutdown could continue for long if it was necessary, repeating his call on the Democrats to support the construction of a wall on the border and putting blame for the shutdown on them.

READ MORE: No End in Sight for Shutdown Showdown as Democrats Retake US House of Representatives

While Trump is demanding to allocate more than $5 billion for the construction of the wall, Democratic lawmakers along with some Republicans have refused to meet the demand, and many have noted that the president had previously promised that Mexico would pay for the wall.

The US president has already rejected a deal from the Democrats that included some $1.6 billion for border security.

Trump has widely criticized the US immigration system and pledged to stop the flow of illegal immigrants in the United States. The president has also warned to close the border for all migrants if the problem of illegal border crossing, which he says is is intertwined with drug and human trafficking, is not resolved.

US in Various Trade Negotiations

President Trump has voiced once again his positive view of trade negotiations. "In the meantime we are doing well in various Trade Negotiations currently going on. At some point this had to be done!" the US president wrote on his Twitter page.

​The president added the Treasury Department has gained billions of dollars from tariffs on Chinese imports, duties that he said were necessary due to Beijing's unfair trade practices.

READ MORE: Prof Explains Why US Turning Its Back on WTO Amid Sino-American Trade Row

Trump argued that his tariff policies were inevitable, saying that "at some point this had to be done" to confront China and other countries that implement unfair trade practices.

China and the United States have been engaged in a trade war since Trump announced in June that $50 billion worth of Chinese goods would be subject to 25 percent tariffs in a bid to fix the US-Chinese trade deficit. Since then, the two countries have exchanged several rounds of trade tariffs, levying duties on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods.

In early December, President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a truce in their escalating trade war after meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, but the two countries have yet to reach a final agreement in their dispute.