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Trump Says Republicans to Focus Border Wall Sales Pitch on Crime

Trump Says Republicans to Focus Border Wall Sales Pitch on Crime

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump offered his fellow Republicans a new slogan in their fight for border wall funding that has shut down parts of the government for 33 days.

“BUILD A WALL & CRIME WILL FALL!” Trump said Wednesday on Twitter. “This is the new theme, for two years until the Wall is finished (under construction now), of the Republican Party.”

The new approach signals a return to focus on Trump’s claim that the lack of a physical barrier along the southern border results in crime after a short period where the White House sought to cast the situation as a humanitarian crisis that a wall could help rectify.

Trump’s comments came as the partial U.S. government shutdown continued to leave more than 800,000 federal workers with the likelihood they would miss a second consecutive paycheck this Friday. Trump wants Congress to authorize $5.7 billion in taxpayer money to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, a shift from his 2016 campaign, when he saidf Mexico would pay for the structure. Democrats have offered $1.3 billion to boost border security and staffing but have objected to funding a physical barrier.

The first signs of movement from the Senate to reopen the government came Tuesday, when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, agreed to vote Thursday on rival proposals to end the standoff. But neither is expected to advance.

To contact the reporter on this story: Terrence Dopp in Washington at tdopp@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Derek Wallbank at dwallbank@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Kathleen Hunter

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