After digging in on border wall funding and forcing a partial government shutdown, US President Donald Trump is now asking Democrats: “Let’s make a deal?”

Trump tweeted on Tuesday afternoon that dealing with border security, the wall and the shutdown wasn’t how incoming Nancy Pelosi wants to start her tenure when Democrats take over the House.

The tweet comes after House Democrats released their plan to reopen the government without approving money for the wall.

Pelosi is expected to be elected Speaker when Democrats take control of the House on Thursday.

Tweet from @realDonaldTrump

Trump spent the weekend saying that Democrats should return to Washington to negotiate, firing off Twitter taunts.

He then revised his aides’ comments to state that he really still wants to build a border wall.

Trump is struggling to find leverage to break the stalemate days before the GOP’s monopoly on Washington power comes to an end.

Democrats in the House unveiled two bills on Monday to put hundreds of thousands of federal workers back on the job. They were expected to pass them as soon as the new congress convenes on Thursday.

Whether the Republican-led Senate, under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, would consider the bills – or if Trump would sign either into law – was unclear.

McConnell spokesman Donald Stewart said Senate Republicans would not take action without Trump’s backing.

The partial shutdown began on December 22.

The President continued his storm of tweets throughout the morning, predicting lower petrol prices in 2019, criticising former general Stanley McCrystal and responding to overtures from North Korea.

Tweet from @realDonaldTrump

Tweet from @realDonaldTrump

-with AAP