U.S. Senator Rand Paul said he’s open to the idea of a compromise over President Trump’s demand for more than $5 billion for his promised wall along the Mexican border.
“I keep thinking maybe splitting the difference might work, that the Democrats’ position is no money at all for the wall. Trump’s position is $5 billion. Really, there probably is some kind of splitting the difference,” the Bowling Green Republican said Wednesday afternoon.
However, the New York Times reports the President Wednesday rejected the idea of a $2.5 billion dollar compromise on new border security funding.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her chamber will vote Thursday on a spending bill that would end the partial government shutdown. That measure contains no money for the wall.
Paul’s comments came while President Trump was scheduled to be meeting with Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders for a border security briefing in the White House Situation Room.
Paul said he thinks negotiations to end the shutdown will accelerate next week, and that all phases of government will be open within one to two weeks.
U.S. Troops Out of Syria
Paul also said he supports President Trump’s vow to bring home American troops from Syria within four months.
Trump had initially said he wanted all U.S. troops home from Syria within 30 days, but extended the timetable after receiving pushback from high-ranking military commanders.
Paul said those criticizing Trump for withdrawing from Syria aren’t being realistic.
“They’ve got to come home sometime, and so the neo-cons—the people who believe that we should be in every war around the world—they always say, ‘Well, if you come home, ISIS may reorganize.’ Well, that will be true in 10 years, 20 years, or a hundred years.”
The President’s initial decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria in 30 days led to the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Senator Paul said he wants to see Middle Eastern countries do a better job of policing the kind of radical ideologies that the Senator says are behind the violence in the region.
