The early portion of Trump's speech was aimed at offering to create a spirit of compromise, but whether Trump and his opponents would follow through was far from clear as both sides are entrenched in long-held positions and girding for 2020 elections. Trump appeared in the House chamber just weeks after his demand for $5.7 billion in wall funds triggered a historic 35-day partial government shutdown that more than half of Americans blamed him for, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.
Millions of Americans were expected to watch the address on television, giving Trump his biggest opportunity to date to explain why he believes a barrier is needed on the U.S. southern border with Mexico. The speech was delayed for a week because of the shutdown, which ended on Jan. 25. (Reporting by Steve Holland; Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell, Roberta Rampton and Susan Heavey; Editing by Peter Cooney)
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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