Trump's renewed demand for $5 billion wall threatens US govt shutdown

Washington's focus on the Mexican border coincides with televised images of US border police lobbing tear gas canisters over a border fence in Southern California

President Donald Trump’s renewed demand for US taxpayer funding of his proposed US-Mexico border wall was threatening again on Tuesday to bring on a budget standoff and a partial government shutdown, leaving Congress just 11 days to act.

With time running short, Trump and Republican leaders of the US House of Representatives huddled at the White House.

Representative Steve Scalise, who attended the meeting, later told Fox News: “It’s all about border security and $5 billion is the number” for the wall.

That figure is significantly higher than even Republicans in the Senate have sought and Democrats have rejected.

Trump, in an interview with