President Donald Trump is committed to building a wall on the southern U.S. border to stop illegal immigration, but his threat of a federal government shutdown over funding is not a concession that Mexico will not pay for it, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday.
"The president has talked pretty extensively about this," Sanders said at the daily White House briefing. "He campaigned on the wall.
"He won on talking about building a wall — and he's going to make sure that gets done.
"He'll continue to fight for that funding and ensure that it takes place," she said.
Trump has threatened to shut down the federal government next month if any spending legislation does not include funding for the wall.
"If we have to close down our government, we're building that wall," Trump told a rally in Phoenix on Tuesday. "Let me be clear."
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said Thursday that the wall would be financed in the spending bill, which Trump must sign by Sept. 30 to keep the government running, but Democrats have vowed to oppose any plan to pay for the barrier.
A 16-day partial federal government shutdown in 2013 cost American taxpayers $1.4 billion.
At Thursday's briefing, reporters repeatedly asked Sanders whether Trump's vow negated campaign promises that Mexico would pay for the wall, with the exchanges becoming intense at times.
"I don’t think he's abandoning it," she said later in the briefing. "This is something the president is committed to.
"It's a priority — and we're moving forward with it."
"But he's not saying that Mexico is going to pay for it?" one reporter asked.
"He hasn't said they're not, either," Sanders snapped back.
"They have. They have," another reporter shouted.
"Thank you," Sanders said tersely. "I think we've had enough outbursts on that subject in the past."