Donald Trump won't give up his strongest weapon: that Twitter account of his.
Since first threatening a government shutdown last month in his battle with Congress over border wall funding, the U.S. president has leaned heavily on Twitter to rally support among his followers.
So far, the strategy seems to be working. That, however, doesn’t bode well for a quick resolution to the standoff.
With a partial government shutdown now in its third week, the White House hinted Sunday that talks to reopen the federal government could produce a deal that sees Trump moving away from his demand that a proposed barrier along the U.S. border with Mexico be a concrete wall.
The possible concession, which comes days after Trump had suggested a barrier of steel rather than a concrete wall, came even as a White House official warned that the shutdown, could "drag on a lot longer." The pledge to build a barrier has made the president a captive of a central campaign promise, which The New York Times says began in 2014 as a way for his aides to get him to remember his hard line on immigration.
The standoff has left about 800,000 federal employees furloughed or working without pay. The House of Representatives, now led by Democrats, passed legislation Thursday night to fund the agencies that have been caught in the border wall crossfire. But Trump could still veto the measure even if the Senate acts to approve it.
