Trump pushes wall plan in US-Mexico border visit

President Donald Trump flew to Texas Thursday to promote his controversial border wall project, pulling out of a major international forum later this month with no end in sight to a row that has partially shut the US government.

Trump used the backdrop of McAllen, Texas, to pursue his message that more barriers on the frontier with Mexico are needed to protect the United States from what he calls a torrent of violent crime committed by illegal immigrants.

"They just go where there's no security and you don't even know the difference between Mexico and the United States," he told a meeting of border patrol officers.

"They have women tied up, they have tape over their mouths, electrical tape."
"If we don't make a deal, I think it would be very surprising to me" not to declare a national emergency, he said. "If I have to, I will. I have no doubt about it."
"A total waste of time," Trump tweeted. "I said bye-bye, nothing else works!" Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, told journalists Trump "sort of slammed the table," then "got up and walked out."
Trump disputed that Thursday, saying "I didn't pound the table. That is a lie. I don't have temper tantrums."