SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. — Grassroots Republicans are sticking with President Trump as a historic partial shutdown of the federal government continues with no end in sight amid a partisan spat over immigration.

That was the consensus report from Republican National Committee members Wednesday as they gathered from around the country for an annual winter business meeting. In interviews, they said committed Republicans in their communities back Trump and his demand for billions in border wall funding in exchange for re-opening the government. Democrats are refusing, insisting Trump end the shutdown before they agree to negotiate on immigration policy.

“Among the grassroots Republicans that I know, they’re right behind the president. They don’t want him to give in at all. The money he’s asking for, for the wall, is pocket change. It’s lunch money,” Peter Goldberg, the RNC committeeman from Alaska, told the Washington Examiner.

“The Democrats are not willing to negotiate,” added Glenn McCall, the RNC committeeman from South Carolina. “Everyone I talk to — they hate to see the workers impacted. But this could have been solved weeks ago if the Democrats would have come to the table in earnest and negotiated with the president.”

In Goldberg’s home state, where the federal government is a major employer, the shutdown is taking a greater toll than elsewhere outside of Washington, motivating Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to break with Trump and call for the government to immediately re-open. It has been partially shuttered for 33 days as Trump maneuvers for more than $5 billion for construction of a wall along the Mexican border.

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Democrats, who assumed control of the House this month, mostly remain steadfastly opposed to approving money to build more physical barriers along the southern border. A fresh batch of public opinion polls suggests that Democrats in Congress are winning this debate as Trump’s 2020 re-election bid gets underway.

The president’s job approval ratings have dropped to 41 percent. Depending on the survey, a majority or plurality of voters blame the president for the shutdown and side with the Democrats on border security policy. But for now, Trump core supporters are sticking with him, GOP leaders on the ground say.

Privately, some Republican insiders who convened at a resort near Albuquerque for the RNC winter meeting expressed frustration with Trump. The president’s critics, unwilling to speak on the record, are on board with his policy of building a wall. But they criticized his decision to use a shutdown as a tactic to extract policy concessions from the Democrats and complained that his effort at public persuasion has been lacking.

“Never pick a fight unless you know how you plan to end it. They don’t know how they’re going to end it,” one RNC member said, criticizing Trump’s approach.

Grassroots Republicans don’t share these concerns, RNC members said, nor are they discouraged by the survey data showing trouble ahead. These Republican voters are thrilled that Trump is waging this fight and are convinced that he’ll eventually outflank House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and land on top.

“They are strongly with the president standing firm on this. This is one of his major campaign promises they would like to see done. This is a national security issue,” said Kelly Arnold, RNC member and chairman of the Kansas GOP. “They’re with the president on this, with doing the government shutdown.”

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