美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Says 'No Problem' With Government Shutdown Over Border Wall Funding

Trump¹ Says 'No Problem' With Government Shutdown Over Border Wall Funding

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

President Trump is threatening to shut down the federal government this fall unless Congress approves more funding for his controversial border wall. In a White House news conference this afternoon, Trump said the U.S. needs beefed-up border security along with big changes in the immigration system.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Personally, if we don't get border security after many, many years of talk within the United States, I would have no problem doing a shutdown. It's time we had proper border security.

CHANG: The president spoke² after a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who has also taken a hard line when it comes to immigration. NPR's Scott Horsley joins us now from the White House. Hey, Scott.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE³: Good to be with you, Ailsa.

CHANG: So Trump described the Italian leader as his new friend. How close are these two guys when it comes to border security?

HORSLEY: Both Trump and Conte were carried into office at least in part by a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment. Italy of course is wrestling with a historic surge in refugees from North Africa and the Middle East. We have seen nothing like that here in the United States where the number of illegal border crossings was actually way down even before Trump came into office.

But both Trump and Conte have benefited from a populist pushback against immigration. Trump of course campaigned on a platform of tough border enforcement and that border wall. And this afternoon, he reiterated⁴ that threat he made over the weekend via Twitter to shut down the government if necessary if Congress doesn't fund the wall and pass the other changes he wants on immigration policy.

CHANG: Now, the president has made similar threats in the past. How serious is this threat?

HORSLEY: When he was pressed by a reporter, Trump acknowledged that there is no red line for him and that everything is negotiable. Frankly⁵, this tough talk on immigration may be more a way to rally the base than a serious threat and something he would actually go through with. Even though Republicans have majorities in both the House and Senate, they have been unable to come anywhere close to passing the kind of immigration overhaul⁶ that the president wants. And the last thing that GOP leaders want is a government shutdown in early October, which would be just...

CHANG: Right.

HORSLEY: ...Weeks before the midterm elections.

CHANG: Exactly.

HORSLEY: Some lawmakers were pretty vocal⁷ about that this weekend. And just this afternoon, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said his goal is to keep the government funded in a timely, orderly manner.

CHANG: This is the first time - right? - Trump and Conte have met at the White House. But they've been together at previous international summits. And they were asked about that. What did they have to say about their previous meetings?

HORSLEY: They talked about that contentious⁸ NATO meeting in Brussels earlier this month. And the president once again took credit for pressing the NATO allies to boost spending on their own defense⁹.

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TRUMP: NATO was essentially¹⁰ going out of business 'cause people weren't paying. And it was going down, down, down. You just have to look at the line. I came along last year. And in a fairly nice tone, I said, you've got to pay. And they paid $44 billion more. And this year, I said it in a little bit stronger tone. And they're paying hundreds of billions of dollars more over the years.

HORSLEY: Now, that's an exaggeration. NATO was hardly going out of business before Trump came along. Most NATO countries were already boosting defense spending both in absolute terms and as a share of their GDP before he came into office. But Trump has certainly kept the pressure on to accelerate that. And, you know, the president was very critical during the NATO summit and again today about Germany's limited defense spending.

We should note Italy actually spends less of its economy on defense than Germany does. The president didn't mention that. He seems to have a soft spot for Conte, who was the only other G-7 leader to embrace his call for letting Russia back into the diplomatic club.

CHANG: And really quickly, speaking of Russia, the question of sanctions came up this afternoon. What did Trump say about that?

HORSLEY: He said economic sanctions against Russia should remain in place for the time being, and he defended his diplomatic outreach to Vladimir Putin. He also said he'd be willing to meet with Iranian leaders if necessary to discuss a replacement¹¹ for the nuclear deal that he walked away from.

CHANG: All right, that's NPR's Scott Horsley at the White House. Thank you, Scott.

HORSLEY: You're welcome.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 reiterated   

反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• "Well, I want to know about it,'she reiterated. “嗯，我一定要知道你的休假日期，"她重复说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Some twenty-two years later President Polk reiterated and elaborated upon these principles. 大约二十二年之后，波尔克总统重申这些原则并且刻意阐释一番。

5 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

6 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

7 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

8 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

9 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

10 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

11 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。