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A prototype for President Trump’s border wall in Tijuana, Mexico
US President Donald Trump has denied changing his views on the Mexico border wall.
It comes after his chief of staff, John Kelly, told Fox News that the president’s opinions had evolved since his original campaign promises about its construction and funding.
“Campaigning is very different from governing,” said Mr Kelly on Wednesday.
Hours later, the president tweeted to say Mexico would still “directly or indirectly” pay for the wall.
Why does the wall matter now?
Immigration has become a key issue between lawmakers, and the White House is currently risking a federal government shutdown from midnight on Friday.
With a longer-term budget deal not reached, Congress faces the deadline to pass a stopgap measure that would fund federal agencies until next month.
Democrats want the bill to include protections for immigrants who entered the US illegally as children, known as “Dreamers”.
Republican President Trump had signalled he was ready to make a deal to help the Dreamers, in return for funding for border-security plans, which include building the wall along the Mexican border.
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John Kelly (L) was appointed as President Trump’s chief of staff in July
Have the wall plans changed?
Both the president and his chief of staff cited the estimated cost as $20bn (£14bn); Mr Trump had originally put the figure at $10-$12bn.
Mr Kelly said the administration was looking at creating a wall across 800 miles (1,300km) of the 3,100km stretch.
Last year Mr Trump said his wall would cover 1,000 miles with natural obstacles taking care of the rest.
During his election campaign, Mr Trump had also insisted Mexico would pay for it in its entirety.
Mr Kelly said they were now looking at alternative ways to raise funds, including via possible visa fees or renegotiating the Nafta trade deal.
In his tweet, President Trump said he still expected Mexico to pick up the costs, possibly “through longer term reimbursement”,
On Wednesday, US media reported that Mr Kelly had privately told a group of Democrats from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that President Trump had not been fully informed when he first came up with his wall plans.
When Fox News asked Mr Kelly if he had called the president “misinformed”, he did not deny it.
Power dynamics
Neither Republicans nor Democrats want to be blamed for a federal shutdown with crucial mid-term elections looming in November.
Republicans have the advantage, by controlling both chambers of Congress, but they are seen as divided on key issues. Some oppose the current bill as they want more money for defence, others oppose the idea of another stop-gap, rather than finalising a longer-term agreement.
BBC News North America reporter Anthony Zurcher says if they stick together, the Republicans in the House of Representatives can pass some sort of short-term solution without any Democratic support. However, Senate Democrats will then have to decide whether they have the numbers to block the bill and force a shutdown.
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Congress has until Friday to pass a bill keeping the government open
What do Democrats want?
President Trump has been fighting to scrap the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) programme, but Democrats protection for around 700,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children.
Bipartisan immigration talks had sounded promising until it was reported last week that Mr Trump had dubbed certain nations “shitholes” during legislative negotiations.
The president gave a deadline of 5 March for Congress to come up with a solution.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin maintain a deal is still on the table.
But the White House has declared it dead, leaving immigration out of the spending bill to be voted on by Friday.
Immigration negotiations would continue next week if Democrats support the bill, said the White House.
What are Republicans offering?
House Republicans are trying to persuade Democrats to vote for the continuing resolution by including a provision to extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program (Chip) for six years.
Chip, which provides healthcare for nine million children, is near the top of the Democrats’ wish list.
At least some Democratic votes are needed to pass the budget measure ahead of Friday’s deadline.
Republicans then have to tackle their own divisions, and hope a provision in the bill to eliminate a tax on expensive health plans could appease conservative lawmakers.
Didn’t this just happen?
Yes. In December, Congress passed a similar short-term bill to keep the government open until 19 January.
The hope had been that Congress would have reached a deal on immigration by now.
And this deal, if it passes, would only keep the government running until 16 February.
The whole drama may be replayed in the coming weeks.
Trump denies view on Mexico wall changed