President Donald Trump says former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan urged him to sign a continuing resolution last year to avoid a government shutdown in exchange for funding for a border wall. Trump says Ryan never delivered on his end of the deal.

You may remember Trump took a lot of heat when he signed the stop-gap spending bill and wasn't very happy about it because it didn't include funding for the wall. Trump tells the Daily Caller he only agreed to sign the $1.3 trillion spending bill after receiving a promise from Ryan

“Well, I was going to veto the omnibus bill and Paul told me in the strongest of language, 'Please don't do that. We'll get you the wall.' And I said, 'I hope you mean that because I don't like this bill,'" Trump said.

Shortly afterward Ryan announced he would not seek re-election and Trump says that sealed the fate of the wall funding.

"Once he went lame duck, it was just really an exercise in waving to people and the power was gone so I was very disappointed," he said.

Trump continues to insist he will build the border wall with or without the support of Democrats in Congress. He has several options before him that would allow him to do so, not the least of which is to proceed by declaring the border crisis a national emergency.

A bi-partisan congressional committee has been charged with coming up with a border security bill by February 15. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday doubled down on her opposition say there will be no funding in the bill for a wall. Trump has acknowledged as much by suggesting that Republican members of the committee are "wasting their time."

Paul Ryan was a go along to get along swamp dweller and is not missed in Congress. Nancy Pelosi is partisan and an obstructionist and her time to go has come.

Another migrant caravan is scheduled to leave Honduras on February 16. That would make four caravans and thousands of more migrants making their way to the U.S. border. The time for tighter security is now.

Mr. President, build that wall.

Barry Richard is the host of The Barry Richard Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. Contact him at barry@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @BarryJRichard58. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. 

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