Trump says he will declare an emergency if he doesn't reach a border deal

President Donald Trump said on Friday (January 25) he would declare a national emergency if he doesn't eventually reach a deal with Democrats on border security.

Trump, who made the comments to reporters during an immigration event at the White House, said earlier on Friday he had reached a deal with lawmakers to reopen the government until February 15 while they work on Trump's demand for funding for a wall on the US border with Mexico.

"I think we have a good chance" of reaching an agreement, Trump said.

"We'll work with the Democrats and negotiate and if we can't do that, then we'll do a - obviously we'll do the emergency because that's what it is. It's a national emergency," he said.

Declaring an emergency could allow Trump to circumvent Congress and repurpose funds Congress has appropriated for other purposes in order to build a wall.

His statements came just after Trump announced on Friday that he had agreed to end the 35-day-old partial government shutdown without getting $5.7 billion (4.32 billion pounds) he demanded from Congress for a border wall. Congress and Trump agreed to a three-week spending plan that sets up tough talks with lawmakers about how to address security along the US-Mexican border.

After the president announced the agreement, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said he hoped the experience would be a "lesson learned" for Trump and his party that it is self-defeating to shut down the government over policy disputes.

Poll show most Americans blamed Trump for the painful shutdown - the longest of its kind in U.S. history.