(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump staged a confrontation Tuesday with the two top congressional Democrats before television cameras in the Oval Office as the dispute over funding for his border wall turned publicly acrimonious.
The drama may raise the chances of a partial government shutdown when funding for some agencies runs out after Dec. 21. The televised back-and-forth between the leaders will likely figure prominently as politicians seek to assign blame for any disruptions that result.
Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, and Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, initially tried to move the conversation away from the cameras. But Trump pressed on with the press corps in the room, eventually declaring he would be “proud” to shut down the U.S. government if his demands for border security funding aren't met.
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“I will be the one to shut it down. I'm not going to blame you for it,” Trump said as the session turned tense. “And I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck.”
The S&P 500 Index reversed gains after Trump's comment, eventually sinking as much as 1.2 percent before recovering as Senate leaders seemed to signal that their intention was to make sure the government is funded.
About That Wall Trump Said Mexico Would Be Paying For: QuickTake
Later Tuesday, Pelosi privately bragged to other Democrats about the outcome of the meeting.
“The fact is we did get him to say, to fully own that the shutdown was his,” she said, according to an aide in the room. “That was an accomplishment.”
‘Manhood Thing'She called the meeting “wild” and said, “it goes to show you: you get into a tinkle contest with a skunk, you get tinkle all over you.”
The president entered Tuesday's meeting in a shifting political environment. Democrats won control of the House in midterm elections in November, and Pelosi is in line to become speaker in January. Schumer said he and Pelosi weren't expecting reporters to be invited into the Oval Office to witness the talks.
At the end of the meeting, Trump told the two Democrats, “We can go two routes with this meeting: with a knife or a candy,” Pelosi told her colleagues. “I said, ‘Exactly.”'
She mocked his desire for a border wall. “It's like a manhood thing for him. As if manhood could ever be associated with him.”
Read more: Battling Trump Gives Pelosi Opportunity Amid Speakership Fight
Congressional aides said even before the meeting that given the hardening positions, a brief shutdown into January is the most likely outcome of the dispute.
“This has spiraled downward,” Pelosi declared minutes after the encounter started, as the president and Democratic leaders bickered over the need for a border wall and whether Trump had enough support in his own party to pass the funding through the Republican-controlled House.
Democrats at times needled Trump. Schumer told the president “elections have consequences,” alluding to his party's midterm victories, and reminded Trump the Washington Post had awarded him “Pinocchios” for statements concerning the border, prompting eye-rolling from the president. Pelosi demanded “an evidence-based conversation.”
“Believe it or not, I think it was a very friendly meeting,” Trump told reporters later on Tuesday. “I don't mind owning that issue,” he said of a shutdown.
‘Constructive Dialogue'
The White House issued a statement afterward describing the meeting as “a constructive dialogue.” Vice President Mike Pence, who sat silent and nearly motionless beside Trump throughout the testy exchanges, would go to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to brief Senate Republicans on the meeting, his spokeswoman said on Twitter.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said he hopes for “a Christmas miracle” that averts a shutdown.
“One thing that's pretty clear: no matter who precipitates a government shutdown, the American people don't like it,” McConnell said.
Read more: Senate Republicans' Message to Trump: Please, No Shutdown
Trump has threatened a shutdown for months over his demand to fully fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, a key promise of his 2016 presidential campaign. He wants far more money than Democrats and even some Republicans have been willing to give him.
“This Trump shutdown, this temper tantrum he seems to throw will not get him his wall and it will hurt a lot of people,” Schumer told reporters after the White House meeting.
But Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina urged Trump to stick to his guns and demand full funding of the border wall.
“I think it's something to be resolved about,” Graham said. “I am ready to do this, enough is enough.”
Political Blame
Shutdown fights typically hang on political blame. Schumer backed down and re-opened the government earlier this year after Republicans successfully pinned the blame for a shutdown on his demands for changes to immigration policy. Congressional Republicans in 2013 backed down after President Barack Obama successfully blamed them for shutting down the government for 17 days to stop funding for Obamacare.
A Marist poll commissioned by NPR and PBS NewsHour released Tuesday illustrates Trump's predicament. It found that Americans believe 57 percent to 36 percent that Trump should “compromise on the border wall to prevent gridlock.” But Republicans said more than 2-to-1 that Trump should hold firm on the wall “even if it means a government shutdown.”
Schumer and Pelosi said they made two offers to Trump. Both would keep financing for border fencing -- not the concrete wall Trump wants -- at the current level of $1.375 billion. Trump has said he wants $5 billion.
The first offer would update spending levels for every unfunded agency except the Department of Homeland Security, which would be kept at current levels. Their second plan would hold all unfunded agencies at their current spending level through Sept. 30.
Although Republicans control both chambers until January, Trump needs Democratic support in the Senate to get the 60 votes needed to advance the spending bill.
And it's not clear that funding for the border wall could pass the House even under Republican control, despite Trump's assertions in the Oval Office meeting that he would prevail in the chamber.
House Republicans have often had to rely on Democrats to pass spending bills because some conservatives will only vote for legislation with deep cuts to domestic spending. In addition, some GOP moderates have balked at the idea of a wall in the past, and Republican representatives who are either retiring or who lost in the Nov. 6 midterm elections have little incentive to drag out the process. Some may be absent for a vote.
$1.6 Billion Deal
Earlier this year, Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to $1.6 billion for border fencing, and that still could be where all sides end up.
“The offer we have on the table is very reasonable. Hopefully we can dispense with the theatrics and get this done,” said Senator Jon Tester of Montana, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security spending panel.
Trump earlier in the day threatened an alternate route to building a wall, if Democrats refuse to provide the money. “If the Democrats do not give us the votes to secure our Country, the Military will build the remaining sections of the Wall,” Trump tweeted.
Trump cannot legally take money Congress has appropriated for one purpose and use it for another, such as building a border wall.
About 75 percent of the government's $1.2 trillion fiscal 2019 operating budget is already funded, so the effects of a shutdown would be limited.
Agencies that would be affected include Homeland Security, though many of its law enforcement agents would remain on the job because they're considered essential. National parks would remain open but most employees who maintain them would be sent home. The Securities and Exchange Commission would halt new investigations except where needed “for the protection of property.” The Defense Department is funded and would operate normally.
Congress could seek to temporarily avoid a shutdown by passing a short-term spending measure into the new year, postponing the fight until Democrats take charge of the House.
Trump, Pelosi and Schumer last met in December 2017, when they couldn't work out a spending agreement and the government shut down a month later.
--With assistance from Laura Litvan, Erik Wasson, Anna Edgerton, Steven T. Dennis and Sahil Kapur.
To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net;Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, John Harney
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