Presidential contradictions: 3 takeaways from Trump‘s Friday fracas

President Donald Trump speaks during a hastily arranged news conference Friday in the White House Rose Garden. He is flanked by (left-right) Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Vice President Mike Pence, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Credit: John T. Bennett CQ Roll Call

Government shutdown could last ‘years’ or end ‘a lot sooner,’ president says

ANALYSIS | President Donald Trump emerged from the Oval Office on Friday afternoon after what congressional Democratic leaders described as a “contentious” meeting, flanked by Republican immigration hard-liners. What followed was more than an hour of presidential threats and backpedaling during an impromptu Rose Garden press conference.

At one point, the president confirmed something Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters just minutes earlier: That during the closed-door Situation Room session he threatened to keep a quarter of the federal government closed for “months or even years” unless he gets $5.6 billion for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.

“I did say that,” Trump said when asked to confirm his fellow New Yorker’s contention. But in almost the next breath, he said: “I hope it doesn’t go on, even beyond a few more days.” And near the end of the chilly outdoor question-and-answer session, Trump struck a much more optimistic tone, saying he thinks the shutdown “will be over a lot sooner than” many people think.

View the complete January 4 article by Jon T. Benntt on The Roll Call website here.