(CNN) President Donald Trump called the ongoing talks with congressional lawmakers to avoid another shutdown "a waste of time" on Thursday, and suggested he would circumvent them in order to fund his border wall in an interview with The New York Times.

"I think Nancy Pelosi is hurting our country very badly by doing what she's doing and, ultimately, I think I've set the table very nicely," Trump told the Times.

Declining to confirm whether he would declare a national emergency to acquire money to build the wall, he said, "I've set the table. I've set the stage for doing what I'm going to do."

Trump's move to end the shutdown last Friday marked the start of a new chapter in the border wall saga, kicking off three weeks of negotiations between Republicans and Democrats of both chambers in pursuit of an agreement on border security. If Trump does not find the deal delivered to him by February 15 satisfactory, parts of the government may shut down again -- and he could declare a national emergency to fund the wall himself.

Trump intimated that he would no longer work with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and stressed that he would see the wall's construction through one way or another.

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