President Trump is not enthused by the bipartisan spending deal that lawmakers tentatively agreed to Monday evening, he told reporters during his Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
“I can’t say I’m happy. I can’t say I’m thrilled,” he said, parroting critiques of the agreement from some of his conservative allies, Sean Hannity and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC).
Though Trump signaled he wasn’t pleased with the deal, he stopped short of saying he would veto it.
“I can tell you that, am I happy at first glance, I just got to see it? The answer is no, I’m not. I’m not happy,” he continued. “But am I happy with where we’re going? I’m thrilled. Because we’re supplementing things and moving things around and we’re doing things that are fantastic, and taking from far less, really from far less important areas.”
He added that he didn’t think there would be another shutdown when funding runs out on Friday, but said “if you did have it, it’s the Democrat’s fault.”
The potential deal that a bipartisan group of lawmakers crafted would allocate $1.4 billion for border wall construction — much less that Trump’s $5.7 billion demands — in exchange for a larger cap on to the number of beds for holding undocumented immigrants, a sticking point for Democrats.
Trump on bipartisan funding deal: "I'm not happy" pic.twitter.com/oW5eJPU0kk
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) February 12, 2019