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Even Republicans seem sick of Trump’s shutdown and border wall threats

Trump puts the odds Congress meets his demand for border wall funding in the next three weeks at "less than 50-50."
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Days after he caved to mounting backlash over the longest government shutdown in history, President Donald Trump is already warning that another one may be on its way.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Sunday, Trump said the odds of coming to a deal with Congress on his demand for border wall funding are “less than 50-50.” Congress appointed a bipartisan mix 17 lawmakers, all on appropriations committees, to try to come to a border-security funding compromise to avoid another shutdown.

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“I personally think it’s less than 50-50, but you have a lot of very good people on that board,” Trump said.

Trump also once again threatened he might attempt to use emergency powers to build a border wall without Congress’s approval.

The shutdown was extremely unproductive for Trump, who caved to mounting pressure from Democrats and disgruntled federal workers living without paychecks by agreeing to spending bills to reopen the government for three weeks.

Trump’s popularity took a hit during the shutdown, with current approval numbers dipping below 40 percent. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Monday that the partial shutdown will cost the federal government about $3 billion in projected 2019 gross domestic product.

Hanging over the talks is Trump’s threat to declare a state of emergency if he doesn’t get his $5.7 billion demand for border wall funding, but some members of his own party think that’s a bad idea.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called Trump’s idea to use emergency powers to build the wall a “terrible idea.” "I hope he doesn't do it,” Rubio said Sunday on NBC.

Sen. Roy Blunt, of Missouri, said Sunday that Trump using emergency powers to circumvent Congress would create a “bad precedent.”

“I happen to agree with the president on barriers at the border and border security as an important first step, but there might be a future president that I don’t agree with that thinks something else is an emergency,” Blunt said on Fox News.

Cover: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Hispanic pastors at the Roosevelt Room of the White House January 25, 2019 in Washington, DC. President Trump held a roundtable with Hispanic pastors to discuss border security and economy. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)