Joe Arpaio, the former Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, lauded President Trump for persisting with the drive to build a border barrier while slamming the Democratic Party and some Republican opponents of the proposed wall as “trying to hurt our country because they may not like our president.”

“He’s got guts to continue this,” Arpaio told Breitbart News. “And he is not going to surrender. Other presidents or politicians would surrender, play the Mickey Mouse games. You do this or you do that. No. He is sticking with the border issue. He is sticking with the wall. And he will come up with the money one way or another.”

Arpaio said that politicians opposed to Trump’s proposed barrier are risking U.S. national security because they “hate” Trump and are seeking to embarrass the president.

“I am talking about the Democrats and the few Republicans trying to hurt our country because they may not like our president,” Arpaio clarified.

“What’s the big deal to spend $5 billion when Congress in the past already said it was okay to build a wall? Now we have got this going on because they hate Trump? It’s all got to do with Trump. Nothing else. Trump. They hate him. They want to embarrass him. And that is what it is all about. And they don’t care about the security of this country. The murders that occur.

“I said four years ago that heroin is coming back. No one would listen. Now we are being flooded with heroin. And the president is trying to do something about it. You can’t just do it with boots on the ground. You’ve got to do something unusual. And that is building a wall.”

Arpaio spoke as the White House confirmed on Thursday that Trump will sign a bipartisan bill to avert a potential government shutdown that contains a fraction of the $5 million the president has been seeking to build a barrier along the porous U.S.-Mexico border.

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters that Trump would also take “other executive action — including a national emergency” as he tries to fulfill the border wall pledge.

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.