[Al Jazeera] US President Donald Trump...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
has invited top congressional leaders to the White House on Wednesday for a border security briefing, the first between the president and Democratic leaders since before a partial government shutdown began a week and a half ago, US media reported.
According to the Tuesday reports, which cited unnamed sources, Trump will host House and Senate leaders from both parties for the briefing. Other details were not released.
The briefing would come a day before House Democrats are set to vote on their recently announced plans to end the shutdown, which does not include money for Trump's border wall.
Democrats in the House unveiled two bills on Monday to fund shuttered government agencies and put hundreds of thousands of federal workers back on the job.
One bill would temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security at current levels, with $1.3bn - well below the $5bn in wall funding Trump has requested - for border security through February 8 as talks continued.
It would also include another measure made up of six other bipartisan bills - some that have already passed the Senate - to fund the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Housing and Urban Development and others closed by the partial shutdown. It would provide money through the remainder of the fiscal year, to September 30.
House Democrats plan to pass the bills as soon as the new Congress convenes on Thursday, one of the first acts after Democrats took control, according to an aide who was not authorised to discuss the plan and spoke on condition of anonymity.