Trump pressures Dems on wall

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump put pressure on Democrats on Sunday as US lawmakers worked to avoid a government shutdown, saying Obamacare would die without a cash infusion the White House has offered in exchange for their agreement to fund his border wall.

The escalated push to get Trump's priorities, which Democrats reject, into spending legislation could jeopardize prospects for an agreement to keep the government open.

If talks fail, the government would shut down on Saturday, Trump's 100th day in office.

"Obamacare is in serious trouble. The Dems need big money to keep it going - otherwise it dies far sooner than anyone would have thought," the Republican president said in a Twitter post.

In a second tweet, he added: "The Democrats don't want money from budget going to border wall despite the fact that it will stop drugs and very bad MS-13 gang members."

MS-13 is a criminal gang with members of Central American origin.

The president's tweets appeared after White House budget director Mick Mulvaney accused Democrats of "holding hostage national security" by opposing $1.5 billion to help build a wall along the US-Mexico border, one of Trump's top campaign pledges.

Democrats have said they would not support legislation that ends federal subsidies to help low-income people buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.

The healthcare law was former Democratic president Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement, which Republicans are trying to repeal and replace.

On Sunday, Democrats called for Trump to stop making "poison pill" demands.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said negotiations between Democrats and Republicans in both the House of Representatives and the Senate were "going quite well" and that he was hopeful a deal could be reached.

"The only fly in the ointment is that the president is being a little heavy handed, and mixing in and asking for things such as the wall," Schumer told reporters.

"We'd ask him to let us do our work, not throw in some last-minute poison pills that could undo it, and we could get this done," he said.

Trump wants money for the wall included in spending legislation that Congress must pass by Friday to keep the federal government operating through Sept 30, when the 2017 fiscal year expires.

Mulvaney and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus played down the danger of a shutdown. Mulvaney said talks between Republicans and Democrats could produce an agreement as early as Sunday.

Reuters