ISLAMABAD – US President Donald Trump vowed Tuesday he would not reopen thegovernment until he gets $5 billion to fund his border wall, as the partialgovernment shutdown dragged into a fourth day.

Trump’s demand for a physical barrier on the US-Mexico border — a pillarof his election platform — has been rejected by Democrats and someRepublicans. In retaliation, Trump refused last week to sign a widerspending bill, temporarily stripping funding from swaths of the government.

“I can’t tell you when the government is going to be open,” the Republicanpresident told reporters at the White House after his annual Christmasteleconference with US troops.

“I can tell you it’s not going to be open until we have a wall, a fence,whatever they’d like to call it.”

Trump reaffirmed a claim made on Twitter Monday that he had approved acontract for the construction of 115 miles (185 kilometers) of wall inTexas, although the White House has not offered any details on the project.

He said he would visit that stretch of the border “at the end of Januaryfor the start of construction.”

“It’s going to be built, hopefully rapidly,” he said.

The president said he aimed to have a barrier stretching across 500 to 550miles of the 2,000-mile border, and “to have it either renovated or brandnew by election time.”

“It’s going to all work out,” he said, adding that some furloughed federalworkers also favor the construction of border wall Trump says willdiscourage illegal immigration.

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said at the weekend the president “mustabandon the wall, plain and simple” to reopen the government.

Trump ended the session by railing against the Democrats and former FBIdirector James Comey, whom he sacked in May 2017 in a move he later saidstemmed from frustration over the federal investigation into possible tiesbetween the Trump campaign Russian interference in the 2016 US vote.

“It’s a disgrace, what’s happening in our country,” Trump said. “But otherthan that, I wish everybody a very Merry Christmas.” – APP/AFP