Donald Trump declines to rule out shutdown in Super Bowl interview

President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to declare a federal crisis if a committee negotiating over agency funding does not include cash for his proposed border wall and failed to rule out another government shutdown. 

In a broad Super Bowl Sunday interview with CBS, Trump also said he wishes to keep U.S. troops in Iraq to “watch” Iran, disputed reports that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is considering a run for Senate and stated he’d steer his son Barron, away from playing football because of the risk of concussions. 

The interview, which will air on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday afternoon as well as throughout the network’s Super Bowl pregame coverage at 3:30 p.m., comes as Congress is running against a Feb. 15 deadline to broker a compromise on government funding along with the president’s demand for billions more in boundary wall money. Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill say that they are ready after an impasse late last year compelled some national agencies to shut for 35 days, to prevent another shutdown. 

“I don’t like to take things off the table. It’s that choice. It’s a national crisis, it has other things,” Trump told CBS’s, Margaret Brennan. “We are likely to have a really strong boundary. And the only means you have a powerful border is you need a physical barrier.” 

Trump has threatened to declare a federal crisis along the border, a move that would allow him to redirect billions in construction money to your wall. But challenges would be almost surely drawn by a presidential emergency declaration and could be tied up in courts for ages. 

The president expected to greatly concentrate on immigration along with his petition for border wall funding during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday night. White House aides have said the address will attempt to frame that and other issues in terms.  

Trump also spoke: 

His longstanding feud with NFL players during the national anthem. “You’ve got to respect our flag and our country,” Trump said. The president said he understood the players’ concerns and pointed out to the justice reform laws that was bipartisan he signed. The legislation dealt mostly with sentencing and prison reforms. “I think there are lots of places and times you can protest and also you can do lots. However, you cannot do that,” Trump said. 

Why he wouldn’t push his son to play football. Trump was responding to a question about the probability of brain injuries from the match. “I hate to say it since I love to watch soccer. I truly feel that as far as my son, although I believe that the NFL is a fantastic solution, I’ve heard NFL players saying they would not let their sons play football. So. It is not totally exceptional, but I’d have a hard time with it,” he explained.