President Donald Trump sent a tweet Friday evening preluding what he calls a major announcement set for Saturday afternoon.
The president gave very few details about his upcoming address, other than "I will be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 3 P.M., live from the @WhiteHouse."
I will be making a major announcement concerning the Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border, and the Shutdown, tomorrow afternoon at 3 P.M., live from the @WhiteHouse.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019
Saturday will mark the 29th day of the partial government shutdown that began on the morning of Dec. 22 — the longest shutdown in American history — and it looks like it will zoom past the four-week mark Friday night.
The crux of the shutdown is a stalemate between political parties over a short-term spending bill in which President Trump wants about $5.7 billion for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, but top Democrats say they won't budge on the president's wish, which was also one of his top campaign promises in 2016.
President Trump has canceled the trip for both him and his delegation next week to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland "out of consideration" for the 800,000 federal employees have either been furloughed or forced to work without pay during the shutdown.
On Thursday, the president postponed a planned trip by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress to visit American troops in Afghanistan. The White House said that trip will be rescheduled.
On Monday, the president purchased fast food to serve Clemson football players and coaches while the White House kitchen staff was short-handed. The team was there to be recognized for their national championship won a week earlier.
Since the shutdown, some national parks have temporarily closed or haven't had staff on site, members of the U.S. Coast Guard have already missed a paycheck, security checks at major airports are backed up because of TSA workers either calling in sick or simply not showing up, museums have closed, the IRS might be late getting out refund checks and now people are worried about security at the Super Bowl on Feb. 3 in Atlanta.
The current shutdown recently passed the 21-day shutdown from late 1995 to early 1996 under President Bill Clinton, who had just two shutdowns on his watch. According to Congressional Research Service, this is the 21st government shutdown in history, with the first in 1976 for 10 days under the Gerald Ford administration.
This is the third partial shutdown under President Trump.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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