As U.S. air travel stalls, Trump agrees to halt shutdown temporarily
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump sounded a full retreat Friday in his border-wall war with Congress, agreeing to a three-week pause in the longest government shutdown in U.S. history just as the impact of the impasse was being felt by air travellers all over North America.
Trump said he has agreed to a continuing resolution that would open the funding taps and allow the government to reopen for three weeks. Government employees who continued to work without pay during the shutdown would receive back pay as soon as possible, including air-traffic controllers, whose escalating absenteeism Friday threw a wrench into airport operations.
Trump made the concession even thought the Democrats have not agreed to approve any funding for his $5.7-billion wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a refusal that’s been at the heart of the shutdown dispute since it began Dec. 22.