Trump blames Paul Ryan for the border wall not being built — here's why

President Donald Trump blamed former House Speaker Paul Ryan for Republicans' failure to begin construction on the border wall he promised voters since 2016.

The president explained the accusations in an interview with The Daily Caller published Wednesday.

"Well, I was going to veto the omnibus bill and Paul told me in the strongest of language, 'Please don't do that, we'll get you the wall,'" Trump said.

"And I said, 'I hope you mean that, because I don't like this bill,' although I love the bill for what it did for the military," he continued. "And therefore, if it weren't for the military, I would have vetoed it."

The president went to explain why funding for the military was pivotal in his decision to sign the omnibus funding bill. He then turned back to the subject of Paul Ryan.

"But another very big factor was the fact that Paul told me in the strongest of terms that, 'please sign this and if you sign this we will get you that wall.' Which is desperately needed by our country," he explained.

"Humanitarian crisis, trafficking, drugs, you know, everything," he added, "people, criminals, gangs, so, you know, we need the wall."

The president said that Ryan "went lame duck," and didn't fulfill his promise to fund the wall.

"And once he went lame duck it was just really an exercise in waving to people and the power was gone so I was very disappointed," he added. "I was very disappointed in Paul because the wall was so desperately needed."

"And I'll get the wall," he concluded.

The border wall became a contentious issue at the center of the debate over the partial government shutdown. Trump said that he would not sign any funding bill without $5.7 billion for his border wall, while Democrats promised that they would not vote for any bill that contained funding for the wall.

Here's the latest in the border budget battle: