BORDER/MEXICO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP POSITION CHANGES/WALL: “President Donald Trump on Thursday [1-18-18] insisted that ‘the Wall is the Wall’ and his conception of it had never changed, the morning after Hispanic lawmakers said his chief of staff told them that the president’s promise to build a wall along the Mexican border was ‘not fully informed.’
‘The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it,’ the president said in a tweet Thursday. ‘Parts will be, of necessity, see through and it was never intended to be built in areas where there is natural protection such as mountains, wastelands or tough rivers or water.’
The day before, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told members of the congressional Hispanic Caucus that ‘the president made promises during the campaign about the wall that were not fully informed,’ Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D., Ill.), who attended the meeting, said Wednesday night. Mr. Kelly’s comment was in response to a question from lawmakers who had asked him to define what Mr. Trump means when he talks about a wall…
The discussion highlighted the deep divides between Democratic lawmakers and Mr. Trump as they struggle to reach an agreement on immigration, a topic that has thwarted Congress for years. One of the central themes of Mr. Trump’s campaign, immigration could now lead to the first government shutdown of his presidency.”
-Kristina Peterson and Natalie Andrews, “As Shutdown Nears, Trump Says ‘the Wall is the Wall’,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 18, 2018 09:58am