Just 28 percent of those surveyed in a new poll think President Donald Trump and Congress will reach a deal on border security in the next three weeks, underscoring the deep skepticism voters hold toward Washington after the longest government shutdown in US history. RNA - Seventy-two percent of registered voters polled think no deal will be reached, according to the latest Hill-HarrisX poll.
Lawmakers aiming to reach a deal met for the first time on Wednesday — and just hours after Trump tweeted his own apparent skepticism of their efforts.
“If the committee of Republicans and Democrats now meeting on Border Security is not discussing or contemplating a Wall or Physical Barrier, they are Wasting their time!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Trump agreed to end a partial shutdown that had closed about a quarter of the government on Friday, signing a measure later that day that will put off another shutdown until February 16.
The measure is intended to buy time for negotiators to work out a deal on funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the border.
Trump is demanding $5.7 billion for his signature campaign issue of a wall on the border, something Democrats have insisted they will not provide. Democrats have offered concessions on border security funding, however, which could pave the way for a deal.
Thirty-eight percent of those surveyed in the Hill-HarrisX poll said that they think the government will shut down again. Another 34 percent said they believe that Trump will ultimately declare a national emergency to get the funds for his wall, a possibility the president mentioned numerous times during the shutdown.
Democratic voters and independent voters were the most likely to expect another shut down with 40 and 41 percent respectively saying they thought this outcome was likely. Thirty-four percent of Republican voters said the same.
According to Fars News Agency, GOP voters were the most optimistic that a deal could be reached with 33 percent of them saying they thought that would be the outcome. Twenty-one percent of independents thought a deal was likely while 30 percent of Democrats agreed.
Trump was widely seen as losing the political battle over the shutdown given polls that showed more people blamed him for the closure than Democrats.
In agreeing to a measure that reopened the government, Trump reversed course and signed a clean measure that included no money for his wall.
Just 23 percent of those polled, however, said they believed Trump ended the shutdown because he thought the public was blaming Republicans for it.
Nearly half of those polled, 47 percent, said they think that Trump agreed to the continuing resolution to reopen the government because he realized that the government closure was hurting the country and federal employees.
Thirty percent of respondents said they believed Trump had re-opened the government because Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had made clear she would not deal with him until the shutdown had ended.
847/940