President Trump: ready to continue his arrest "as long as necessary"

Twelve days after the partial shutdown of the government, President Donald Trump expressed his determination to keep it "as long as necessary" to secure the funding he requested for the construction of a southern border .

"It could be very long, could end quickly. This is too important a topic for us to move away from it, "said the president, saying the country's population supported him.

"I think Canadians think I'm right," Trump said.

The President also said that he had skipped his traditional Christmas holidays in Florida amid the closure, apparently as evidence of his commitment to the fight.

"I was here on Christmas Eve, I was alone in the White House," Trump said. "It's a very big house, with the exception of all the guys on the lawn with machine guns. I waved to them. I have never seen so many guys armed with machine guns in my life. "

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

President Trump, comparing the wall of the border to a sieve, argued for the effectiveness of a physical wall, highlighting the Vatican and Israel as cases where the physical walls succeeded.

"The wheel, the wall, some things never get old," said the president, accusing Democrats of doing politics and projecting themselves into the 2020 battle, in anticipation of a meeting with the Congressional leaders at the White House later in the evening. day.

"We are at a dead end because the Democrats are refusing to finance border security," said Trump.

Democrats have tabled two plans to reopen the government, but the deal does not include the president's request for $ 5 billion in funding for the construction of the border wall. Democrats have offered $ 1.3 billion in border security.

Evan Vucci / AP

Journalists were allowed to enter for more than an hour and a half from a cabinet meeting that was marked by inaccurate statements by the president and which covered a wide range of topics, including the Criticism of the opinions of the next senator from Utah, Mitt Romney, Syria and Kanye West.

Echoing a tweet he had sent earlier in the day in reaction to Romney's op-Ed, the president said he was surprised that the former Republican presidential candidate had published the article.

"I would like Mitt to become more of a team player.I am surprised that he did that so fast," Trump said. I gave him his approval. I was happy that he won. "

The president said that if Romney had fought as hard as Obama, "he would have won the elections" and expressed hope that Romney would come to support him.

The president reiterates his commitment to withdraw troops from Syria "in a short period of time", while stating that there is "no timetable".

"We get away with it, we behave badly and we win," said Trump. "I never said tomorrow. We withdraw our soldiers and they will not be withdrawn and we will leave Syria. "

The President also asserted that he had essentially "sacked" former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, contradicting many reports that Mattis had resigned due to disagreements with the President over the policy, particularly because of its order to withdraw Syrian troops.

"We go out and we show intelligence," he said.

President Trump also noted the bad news of the stock market last month, thus minimizing them.

"We had a little problem in the stock market last month," he said and predicts the market will skyrocket when trade deals are over.