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President Trump announced Monday he will be addressing the nation from the Oval Office Tuesday night.
Trump said he will discuss the crisis at the southern border and the failing negotiations with the Democrats that have so far kept the government from reopening. The president is also set to discuss a planned visit to the U.S.-Mexico border he and several other administration officials will be making on Thursday. It is not clear which outlets will be carrying the address Tuesday evening. The four major broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, have confirmed receiving the White House’s request to speak for several minutes at 6 p.m PST, but producers have not decided whether they will cut in to their prime-time lineup to broadcast Trump’s address.
Cable news networks such as CNN and Fox News have already said they will carry the address live..
Trump’s message to the nation from the Oval Office comes during the president’s efforts to built a wall on the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Trump claims there is a crisis on the nation’s southern border and that Democrats are unwilling to work with him to solve the problem. Acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, says Tuesday night’s address by the president is a way for Trump to properly explain the partial government shutdown to the nation.
It was also reported today that President Trump will travel to the border on Thursday.
White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the news in a tweet sent Monday morning.
“President @realDonaldTrump will travel to the Southern border on Thursday to meet with those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis. More details will be announced soon.”
Trump’s visit to the southern border will come on the 20th day of the partial government shutdown should Democrats continue to deny funding for the wall.
Both parties appear to have dug in to their positions, with each side refusing to give ground.
The shutdown, which could become the longest in history by next Sunday, has affected more than 800,000 federal workers, many of whom, have gone without pay. President Trump said he had no intention of signing legislation to fund shuttered agencies or reopen the government unless the funding bill included funding for a border wall between the United States and Mexico.
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi had continuously defied Trump, saying that the president is “Not going to get a wall.” Democrats in the House have begun sending individual funding bills to reopen the government. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will not bring any bill to the floor that Trump will not sign.
Some of the bills House Democrats are considering would reopen the Treasury Department, provide funding to reopen the Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development and Interior Departments.
For more information on this story, visit The New York Times.