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Is Paul Ryan to blame for gov't shutdown? Trump says former GOP leader 'screwed him'
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Is Paul Ryan to blame for gov't shutdown? Trump says former GOP leader 'screwed him'

Paul held a GOP majority in the House until just last year

President Donald Trump was forced to concede last week: He signed a stop-gap bill to temporarily fund the government for three weeks, ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

Unfortunately, another shutdown could be on the horizon. Lawmakers are expected to hit the ground running this week to ensure it will not happen again. However, Trump will likely not concede again — he wants funding for a border wall and has signaled he is willing to hold out for an extended period of time to get the financing.

But if it had not been for former House Speaker Paul Ryan's seemingly weak leadership in the waning months of his congressional tenure, border wall funding may have long been secured. At least that's what Trump reportedly voiced last week during a roundtable at the White House.

What did Trump say?

Trump said Ryan "screwed him" by not securing funding for border security — and specifically, the wall — while Republicans still controlled a majority in the House, Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Washington Post.

More from the Post:

[Trump] said Ryan should have gotten him money before he left but he had no juice and had "gone fishing," according to two attendees.

Ryan had warned the president against a shutdown and told him it would be politically disastrous, according to a person familiar with their conversations.

The Post's story detailed Trump's capitulation and the internal dialogue that happened prior to Trump publicly announcing the deal to re-open the government.

However, at the Wednesday meeting, Trump promised "there would be no caving" to Democrats — the government would remain shut down until border wall funding was secured.

"Everybody who spoke up applauded him for not caving, but warned him that any further movement toward the Democrats' direction would be a problem," Krikorian said.

By Friday, Trump conceded, announcing a plan to re-open the government. Many viewed the deal as a severe political blow to Trump's agenda.

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