“I am proud to shut down the government over border security,” Trump said in the White House Oval Office meeting with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California, the speaker-designate, and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, the minority leader of the Senate.

“If you really want to find out how effective a wall is, just ask Israel,” Trump said in an extraordinary exchange in front of the press. “[It’s] 99.9 percent effective and our wall will be every bit as good as that, if not better.”