Callers to White House receiving automated message apologising for Trump government shutdown

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Callers to the White House switchboard are are receiving an automated message apologising for nobody being there because of the government shutdown.

Unless Donald Trump - holed up in the building having cancelled his planned vacation in Florida - decides to start answering the phones himself, callers for the next few days will hear a voice that blames the lack of staff on a “lapse in federal funding”.

“Once funding has been resumed, operations will resume,” it adds. “Please call back at that time”.

The absence of staff to answer the White House phones is one of several fallouts from the partial government shutdown that has entered its third day.

The shutdown, triggered by the failure of the president to agree to a compromise for a funding package unless it contained $5bn for a border wall, saw nine federal departments closed, with hundreds of thousands of essential staff working without pay. Among such employees set to work though the holidays, were border agents and Transportation Safety Authority staff at airports.

In Washington, access to the national Christmas tree on the Mall was also closed off because there was not sufficient personnel to staff it.

Mr Trump, who cancelled his planned Christmas holiday to Florida and tweeted from the White House he was “all alone - poor me”, said he was meeting on Monday with his homeland security secretary, Kristjen Nielsen, to discuss border security. On Monday afternoon, it was reported the first lady had returned to Washington from the Trumps’ Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who is also the budget director, said he was waiting to hear from Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York about a counteroffer the White House presented Mr Schumer over the weekend.

Mr Mulvaney would only say the offer was between Mr Trump’s $5.7bn request and the $1.3bn Democrats have offered, the Associated Press said.

“We moved off of the five and we hope they move up from their 1.3,” said Mr Mulvaney, a day after a senior administration official insisted Congress would have to cave into the president’s demand for the shutdown to end.

A Democratic aide told the AP the offer from the White House on Saturday was $2.5bn - an initial $2.1bn plus $400m Democrats called a “slush fund” for the president's other immigration priorities.