BORDER/CONGRESS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “President Donald Trump and leaders in Congress appear to be pulling back from a government shutdown over his $5 billion request for border wall funds. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicates that Trump doesn’t want to shut down the government, though just last week he said he’d be ‘proud’ to over the issue of border security. One option circulating on Capitol Hill would be to approve government funding at existing levels and kick the issue into the next Congress. It was a turnaround after days of impasse. Without a resolution, more than 800,000 government workers could be furloughed or sent to work without pay beginning at midnight Friday [12-21-18], disrupting government operations days before Christmas.”
–Associated Press, “The Latest: Shutdown Threat Recedes as Trump Softens Stance,” The New York Times online, December 18, 2018