Trump caves again – The Burning Platform

Trump Announces 3-Week Stopgap Deal, Threatens ‘National Emergency’ If No Wall Funding

Update 3 (2:20 pm ET): Trump has announced a tentative deal to reopen the government for 3 weeks until Feb. 15.

TRUMP: AS EVERYBODY KNOWS, I HAVE “VERY POWERFUL ALTERNATIVE”
TRUMP SAYS HE WILL SIGN BILL TO OPEN GOVERNMENT FOR 3 WEEKS
TRUMP SAYS HE WILL MAKE SURE WORKERS GET THEIR PAY QUICKLY
TRUMP SAYS DEAL REACHED TO END SHUTDOWN
TRUMP SAYS HE HAS POWERFUL ALTERNATIVE, HOPES WON’T BE NEEDED
TRUMP EXPECTS HOMELAND SECURITY PACKAGE TO BE SIGNED SOON

Trump is leaving his options open to call a national emergency to build the wall if no deal is reached. He also said he would look at border technology including drones. Furthermore, the wall won’t be a “medieval” wall but will be a “see-through steel” “smart wall” built in “preidentified strategic areas” with features like see-through visibility.

“If we don’t get a fair deal from Congress, the government will either shut down on Feb. 15 again, or I will use the emergency powers…to address this emergency. We will have great security,” Trump said.

Stocks are moving lower on the confirmation…

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Truly pathetic.

Via Zero Hedge

Trump Blinks; White House Will Avoid Shutdown, Find Other Ways To Fund Wall

The White House on Tuesday said that it wants to avoid a partial government shutdown and has found other ways to fund President Trump’s border wall, according to spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

Congress and President Trump have just four days to come to an agreement before large portions of the federal government begin to shut down. At issue is a fight over $5 billion in funding from Congress for the border wall, which Democrats led by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have flat out rejected.

Sanders told Fox News “We have other ways that we can get to that $5 billion,” adding “At the end of the day we don’t want to shut down the government, we want to shut down the border.” She then said that the White House was looking into other funding sources and believed that it could be accomplished legally.

“There are certainly a number of different funding sources that we’ve identified that we can use, that we can couple with money that would be given through congressional appropriations that would help us get to that $5 billion that the president needs in order to protect our border,” said Sanders.

None of that sounds like Mexico paying for it, but we digress…

Sanders’s comments come after a series of miscalculations by Republicans in recent days over how to try and get Democrats to sign onto $5 billion to pay for the construction of a wall along the Mexico border.

Last week, Trump said he would be “proud” to shut down the government over the issue, a statement that congressional Republicans openly said muddied their messaging. –WaPo

On Sunday, Schumer told Meet The Press that President Trump would not get funding for the wall “in any form.”

WATCH: @SenSchumer says we can't let the president’s “temper tantrum” cause a government shutdown. #MTP #IfItsSunday pic.twitter.com/DSj7JktTlP

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) December 16, 2018

On Monday evening, frustrated Senate Republicans told the press they were expecting a formal proposal from the White House to avert a shutdown – perhaps around 5 p.m., however that never happened and the Senate moved on to other issues such as an overhaul of the criminal justice system.

“We’ll continue to have these conversations with both Senate and House Republicans and Democrats. Our team has been in constant communication,” said Sanders. “We’re going to continue to do that. I’m not going to negotiate here, but we’ve been talking to them just as recently as this morning.”

For now, while the Treasury Bill curve has improved, it remains anxiously kinked around the potential shutdown date (as demand for pre-shutdown liquidity inverts the curve)…