WASHINGTON: US
President Donald Trump on Friday brought a temporary end to the longest
government shutdown in US history, while dropping his previous insistence on
immediate funding for wall construction along the Mexican border. The
announcement in the White House Rose Garden on the bipartisan deal marked a
retreat by Trump, suspending a row that paralyzed Washington, disrupted air
travel, and left more than 800,000 federal employees without pay for five weeks.

The top
Democratic senator, Chuck Schumer, said he hoped Trump had "learned his
lesson". The Senate and House of Representatives both passed the deal by
unanimous consent Friday. The White House later confirmed Trump had signed it
into law. Trump's reversal came as the full weight of the shutdown, including
the financial cost on struggling employees and the national economy, became
clear, and as the president appeared outfoxed by his political nemesis Nancy
Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives.

But while Trump
climbed down in agreeing to reopen government without first getting $5.7
billion in border wall funds, he still threatened to renew hostilities with a
new shutdown, or a state of emergency, if there is no breakthrough on his pet
project in the next three weeks. "Over the next 21 days, I expect that
both Democrats and Republicans will operate in good faith," he said as he
announced he would reopen the government.

"If we don't
get a fair deal from Congress, the government either shuts down on February
15th again, or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws and
Constitution of the United States to address this emergency," he warned.
"We really have no choice but to build a powerful wall or steel
barrier." S&P Global Ratings said late Friday that the shutdown cost
"is likely worse than what we had previously expected." Based on
their analysis, "the US economy lost at least $6 billion ... larger than
the $5.7 billion that the White House requested for the border wall," it
said in a statement.

Trump triggered
the shutdown in December to pressure congressional Democrats to give him
funding for the border wall. But the House Democrats calculated that voters
would blame Trump for the ensuing chaos - and polls showed they were correct.
Federal workers as varied as museum employees and US Coast Guard sailors were
left without salaries. Even Secret Service agents guarding the White House have
been working without pay.

By Friday the
shutdown impact was focused on airports, where enough federally employed
security staff had called in sick to slow down overall operations. Air traffic
controllers were working without pay and in New Jersey's busy Newark Liberty
International Airport staffing issues led to delays, raising the specter of a
wider degradation of US air travel. This raised pressure to reach a deal - and
Trump buckled, even at the risk of angering his rightwing voter base.

Conservative
commentator Ann Coulter wasted no time in lashing out. "Good news for George
Herbert Walker Bush: As of today, he is no longer the biggest wimp ever to
serve as President of the United States," she tweeted, referring to the
late president, a Republican moderate.

Trump says more
border walls are needed to stop what he says are crisis levels of criminals and
illegal immigration. Democrats say his focus on the wall distracts from more
complex immigration problems and is used to whip up his base for political
gain. On Thursday, two competing bills to end the partial shutdown failed in
the Senate, underscoring the inability of Democrats and Trump's Republicans to
agree on a compromise that to reopen government and commit to wall
construction.

Trump has spoken
for weeks about using his presidential authority to declare a border emergency
and bypass Congress, allowing himself to take funds from other sources for the
wall. However this would almost certainly be challenged in court. So while
Trump had said he would not "cave" in the standoff, the president was
left with little alternative.

At his White
House announcement, Trump sought to thank the federal workers who suffered as
collateral damage in the political battle, saying they showed
"extraordinary devotion in the face of this recent hardship". But
Tiffany Cruz, who works at LaGuardia Airport in New York, which was also badly
hit by delays, said she had little faith in Trump. "He's just reopening
(government) at his convenience," she said. "I don't believe he cares
about anything but himself."

With the shutdown
ending, the question arises whether Trump will be re-invited to deliver his
State of the Union address in Congress next Tuesday. Pelosi, who outfoxed him
in the five-week showdown, had insisted he not deliver his speech until
government reopened. On Friday she said the schedule remained undecided. - AFP