Government shutdown is not 'a desired end,' says budget director Mick Mulvaney
A government shutdown is not what the Trump administration wants, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney told Chris Wallace in a conversation on Fox News Sunday. A shutdown will occur on Friday, April 28, if Congress cannot pass a spending package by that date.
"President Trump has talked about a number of items that he would like to see in this government funding bill," Wallace said, alluding to the White House's Thursday demand that any spending package include money for President Trump's southern border wall. "Which are so important that he's willing to see the government shut down if he doesn't get them?"
"I don't think anybody is trying to get to a shutdown," Mulvaney replied. "Shutdown is not a desired end. It's not a tool. It's not something that we want to have." Still he added, the White House wants "our priorities funded and one of the biggest priorities during the campaign was border security, keeping Americans safe and part of that was a border wall."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Also on Sunday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions in an ABC interview and President Trump on Twitter both reaffirmed Trump's campaign pledge that Mexico (or perhaps Mexicans, since the plausibility of the Mexican government cutting a check is miniscule) will pay for the wall eventually:
Watch Mulvaney's full interview below. Bonnie Kristian
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
6 homes for entertainingFeature Featuring a heated greenhouse in Pennsylvania and a glamorous oasis in California
-
Obesity drugs: Will Trump’s plan lower costs?Feature Even $149 a month, the advertised price for a starting dose of a still-in-development GLP-1 pill on TrumpRx, will be too big a burden for the many Americans ‘struggling to afford groceries’
-
The ‘Kavanaugh stop’Feature Activists say a Supreme Court ruling has given federal agents a green light to racially profile Latinos
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
-
Trump pivots on Epstein vote amid GOP defectionsSpeed Read The president said House Republicans should vote on a forced release of the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein files
-
Trump DOJ sues to block California redistrictingSpeed Read California’s new congressional map was drawn by Democrats to flip Republican-held House seats
-
GOP retreats from shutdown deal payout provisionSpeed Read Senators are distancing themselves from a controversial provision in the new government funding package
-
Catholic bishops rebuke Trump on immigrationSpeed Read ‘We feel compelled’ to ‘raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity,’ the bishops said
-
House releases Epstein emails referencing TrumpSpeed Read The emails suggest Trump knew more about Epstein’s sex trafficking of underage women than he has claimed
-
Newsom slams Trump’s climate denial at COP30speed read Trump, who has called climate change a ‘hoax,’ declined to send any officials to this week’s summit
-
UK, Colombia halt intel to US over boat attacksSpeed Read Both countries have suspended intelligence sharing with the US over the bombing of civilian boats suspected of drug smuggling
