Trump again threatens to shut down the government over border security

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated a threat to shut down the federal government in September if Congress could not deliver on Republican demands to crack down on immigration by enforcing border security and building his long-promised wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.

“If we don’t get border security after many many years of talk within the United States, I would have no problem doing a shutdown,” Trump said during a 40-minute news conference held with Giuseppe Conte, the visiting Italian prime minister. “We’re the laughingstock of the world.”

The news conference was the first time the president had taken questions from journalists since a taped conversation surfaced between him and Michael Cohen, his longtime lawyer, in which they discussed payments to a Playboy model who said she had an affair with Trump. The conversation, taped weeks before the 2016 election, shows that Trump knew about the payments, a fact his campaign had denied.

For days, Trump and his aides have avoided questions about Cohen, and have shielded the president from the political aftermath of his summit meeting in Helsinki with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Since the meeting, Trump has issued — and then delayed — an invitation to Putin to visit Washington. And last week, the White House banned a journalist for asking the president about both topics.

Rather than clarify his position on either, Trump has in recent days railed against the press, calling journalists the “enemy of the people,” and, over the weekend, again pivoted to a message of tighter border security.

On Monday, Russia and the recording were not broached by reporters. Instead, Trump and Conte fielded questions about the global economy and border security. Trump was also asked about U.S. relations with Iran, which have all but disintegrated since the Trump administration pulled out of a nuclear deal with the country in May. Last week, Trump threatened President Hassan Rouhani of Iran on Twitter, writing in capital letters that Iran would face “consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered” if it continued to threaten the United States.

Trump struck a deal-making tone when presented with a question about meeting with Iranian leaders Monday. “I believe in meeting,” he said, adding that he would not need preconditions to schedule a meeting.

“I would certainly meet with Iran if they wanted to meet,” Trump said. “I don’t know that they are ready yet — they’re having a hard time right now.”

The visit from Conte appeared to be a welcome one for Trump, who repeatedly emphasized their similarities as populist leaders who rose to victory by promising to crack down on immigration. Trump repeatedly praised Conte’s similarly hard-line stance to tightening his country’s borders, saying at one point that their views on immigration had been a significant factor in both of their election victories.

“We are outsiders to politics, can you believe it?” the president asked Conte, another leader elected to office amid the anti-establishment waves sweeping through Western governments.

At one point, Conte was asked about Trump’s behavior at NATO, where the president this month seemed to attack his closest Western allies and strike a conciliatory stance with Russia. As Trump smiled and listened, the prime minister praised him as someone who brought “fruitful exchanges” to the table with his allies.

“He’s a great negotiator,” Conte added.

As he escorted Conte away from reporters, cameras and microphones, Trump ignored multiple shouted questions about Cohen.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.