WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he will look for “land mines” in a government funding bill, though he also said he does not want to close the government for the second time this winter.
Trump told reporters before a meeting with Colombian President Ivan Duque that he would decide whether to sign the government funding legislation when he sees it.
“We haven’t gotten it (the legislation) yet. We’ll be getting it. We’ll be looking for land mines,” Trump said.
“I don’t want to see a shutdown. A shutdown would be a terrible thing. I think a point was made with the last shutdown. People realized how bad the border is, how unsafe the border is, and I think a lot of good points were made,” he added.
Trump said earlier this week he was unhappy with lawmakers’ compromise deal, which gives him $1.37 billion for fencing along the southern border with Mexico, rather than the $5.7 billion he is seeking to build his promised border wall.
But a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday that the president would likely back the bipartisan legislation.
For 35 days in December and January, the federal government was hit by a partial shutdown that was the longest in U.S. history. Some members of Trump’s right-wing base have criticized him for opening the government without receiving funding for the border wall.
Reporting by Roberta Rampton; writing by Makini Brice; editing by Jonathan Oatis
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