Thrilled about 'a lot of wall', says US President Donald Trump

President Donald Trump says that despite his unhappiness with a tentative agreement to prevent another partial government shutdown, he's "thrilled" about the direction of border wall construction. Earlier, Democrats and Republicans struck a deal in principle to fund the US government and avert another crippling government shutdown while denying President Donald Trump much of the USD 5.7 billion he demanded to build a controversial wall along the US-Mexico border. Donald Trump says the bottom line is that "we're building a lot of wall." Trump said he needs to look further at the agreement to avert the shutdown, which would grant far less than the USD 5.7 billion he wants for the wall.

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Senate and House negotiators from both parties, who held a closed-door meeting in Washington, did not comment on the details of the deal, saying the staff is still working on last-minute logistics.

Sharp differences between Democrats and President Trump over border security and building a wall along the US-Mexico border resulted in a record partial government shutdown for more than 30 days. Building a wall along the US-Mexico border is a campaign promise of the 72-year-old Republican President.

"We've had a good evening. We've reached an agreement in principle between us on the Homeland Security and the other six bills," Senator Richard Shelby told reporters on Monday night.

As a result, the House and the Senate are likely to pass a new resolution before the February 15 deadline.

According to reports, the bill would provide USD 1.375 billion for wall construction, far less than USD 5.7 billion congressional funding Trump has demanded to build the wall.

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In December, Trump pushed back at Congress by refusing to fund large sections of the government, leading to record-breaking government shutdown in America's history that affected some 800,000 federal employees.

Last month, Trump backed a deal to temporarily end the five-week shutdown despite getting no funding for his controversial plan to build the wall along the US-Mexico border. The federal government shutdown cost the US economy a whopping USD 11 billion, including a permanent USD 3 billion loss, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said last month.