Trump serves fast-food feast for Clemson tigers amid shutdown

US President Donald Trump has put on a fast food feast at the White House, blaming the partial government shutdown for the lack of catering staff.

He welcomed the winners of the national college football championship, the Clemson Tigers, with more than 300 burgers as well as fries and pizzas.

White House chefs normally would serve much fancier fare underneath the stern gaze of the portrait of Abraham Lincoln in the State Dining Room. But they are furloughed, staying home without paychecks as Trump fights with Congress over funding the federal government.

"Because of the shutdown... we went out and we ordered American fast food paid for by me," Trump told reporters.

Much of the federal government is out of operation because of the shutdown.

It has affected an estimated 800,000 public sector workers, including White House residence staff, who have been on mandatory leave or working without pay for a record 24 days.

“We have pizzas, we have 300 hamburgers, many, many french fries, all of our favourite foods,” Trump told reporters, as one White House worker still on the job lit tapered candles.

“I want to see what’s here when we leave because I don’t think it’s going to be much,” Trump said, before the players, dressed in dapper suits, flooded the room and piled their plates high.

President Trump is refusing to approve a federal budget unless it includes funds for a wall along the Mexican border, but Democrats have rejected his request for $5.7bn (£4.5bn).

About a quarter of the federal government will remain closed and employees such as air traffic controllers and Secret Service agents will continue to work without pay until a spending plan is agreed.

It is not clear how much the president paid for the order but Trump told the players afterwards that he did not want to postpone the event until after the shutdown - which is already the longest in history - ended.

Earlier in the day, Trump told farmers at a convention in New Orleans that he would continue to fight for his promised border wall.