(USAToday)
As the partial government shutdown entered a third day on Monday, President Donald Trump sought to cajole Democrats into a budget agreement that remained elusive, at one point lamenting he was "all alone" waiting for a deal.
With little progress on his demand for a $5 billion border wall and most lawmakers away for Christmas, the president repeatedly took to Twitter to argue for the border funding. He also scheduled a meeting Monday afternoon with top Homeland Security officials.
"I am all alone (poor me) in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed Border Security," the president posted on Twitter. "At some point the Democrats not wanting to make a deal will cost our Country more money than the Border Wall we are all talking about."
Markets slumped on a shortened Christmas Eve trading day as investors grappled with the shutdown and the lack of progress toward a solution. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's effort to calm investors appeared to backfire after he made an unprompted statement over the weekend that U.S. banks are healthy – an assurance that seemed only to inject uncertainty on Wall Street. Read more
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