Trump wall: President addresses nation on border ‘crisis’

US President Donald Trump has made his first TV address to the nation from the Oval Office, escalating a stand-off with Congress that has led to an 19-day partial government shutdown.Mr Trump insisted on funding for his long-promised border wall with Mexico.However, he did not declare an emergency that would enable him to bypass the lower house of Congress now controlled by the opposition Democrats.Democratic leaders accused him of holding the American people hostage. Is there a crisis on the US-Mexico border? Read Trump and Democrats’ speeches in full Fourteen ways the US shutdown is hurting The Republican president wants $5.7bn (£4.5bn) to build a steel barrier, which would deliver on a key campaign pledge.But Democrats – who recently took control of the House of Representatives – are adamantly opposed to giving him the funds.The ongoing closure of a quarter of federal agencies is the second-longest in history, leaving hundreds of thousands of government workers unpaid.What did Trump say?In an eight-minute live address on Tuesday night, he blamed the Democrats for the government shutdown.The situation at the border was, he said, a “humanitarian crisis, a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul”. Mexico, he said, would pay… Read full this story

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