Donald Trump used a Christmas morning gathering in the Oval Office to reiterate the reasons he insists funding is needed for a border wall, even if it means the federal government will continue to be partially shut down.

“I can’t tell you when the government is going to reopen,“ Trump said, according to pool reports.

Not until, he explained, “we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it. I’ll call it whatever they want. But it’s all the same thing. It’s a barrier from people pouring into our country.”

In discussing his insistence on the need for a wall, the president said the people of San Diego had asked for one.

“People were walking through Mexico right into San Diego, right over people’s front lawns by the hundreds, by the thousands. And they came to us, they asked for a wall, “ Trump said, without offering any supporting evidence of this type of onslaught. “A drone isn’t going to stop it.”

Trump said he believed the wall would serve as a “barrier from drugs” and also against human trafficking. He also responded to criticism that the wall wouldn’t really keep people out.

“Now there may be the case of an Olympic champion who can get over the wall but for the most part you are not able to do it. Very high. It’s gonna be 30 feet. Much of it is 30 feet high. Some if it’s low. But in some areas we have it as high as 30 feet. That’s like a three-story building.”

The president also gave a timeline for the completion of the wall.

“It’s my hope to have this done, completed — all 500 to 550 miles — to have it either renovated or brand new by election time,” he said, presumably referring to the November 2020 presidential election.

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