UNITED STATES—President Donald Trump spoke to reporters on Christmas indicating that the federal government will remain shut down until the border wall is funded.

“While we’re fighting over funding we are also building, and it is my hope to have this done, completed, all 500 to 550 miles, to have it renovated or brand new by election day,” said Trump.

“I can’t tell you when the government is going to be open,” Trump continued. “I can tell you it’s not going to be open until we have a wall, a fence, or whatever they want to call it.”

“The Wall is different than the 25 Billion Dollars in Border Security. The complete Wall will be built with the Shutdown money plus funds already in hand. The reporting has been inaccurate on the point. The problem is, without the Wall, much of the rest of Dollars are wasted!,” tweeted Trump.

“I am in the Oval Office & just gave out a 115 mile contract for another large section of wall in Texas. We are already building and renovating many miles of Wall, some complete. Democrats must end Shutdown and finish funding billions of dollars & lives will be saved,” tweeted Trump on December 24.

Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives in January.

Mick Mulvaney from the Office of Management (OMB) and incoming acting White House Chief told Chris Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday that President Trump insists on funding for a border wall.

“This is what Washington looks like when you have a President who refuses to go along to get along,” Mulvaney told Wallace.

Mulvaney went on to say that House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi is weeks away from reclaiming her position as Speaker of the House and is intentionally stalling negotiation efforts to resolve the partial closing that went into effect on midnight December 22.

Mulvaney explained by pointing to a picture of the proposed wall, which included an image of a steel barrier.

“That’s what we want to build,” said Mulvaney to Wallace. “In the Democrats’ mind, that is not a wall. So they have offered us $1.3 billion to build the barrier that we want – but they go on TV and say there’s no money for the wall. We’ve already told the Democrats we want to build what the president tweeted out. It doesn’t have to be a 30 foot tall concrete wall.”