by Laerke Christensen, reporter

As the US government shutdown moves into its 35th day all hopes were pinned on a double vote which fell short of the $5.7bn wall.

On Thursday 24th January the US Senate voted down opposing proposals to end the shutdown.

The first vote was on Trump’s compromise: a bill including $5.7bn funding for a border wall between the US and Mexico, but also many nods to the Democrats in the form of protection for Dreamers, more immigration judge teams, more border patrols and increased consideration for the 300,000 people in the US currently under Temporary Protection Status (TPS).

Two of these topics – the protection of Dreamers and TPS status holders – are protections that the President has previously tried to rescind.

The vote to discuss the bill backed by the President was defeated 50/47 in the Senate, with 60 votes necessary to win.

Directly thereafter, a Democratic bill attempting to secure funding for the 9 affected executive departments and 800,000 furloughed employees until the 8th of February also failed in the Senate, with votes 52/44.

President Trump has announced that he will veto any bill that does not include funding for his border wall.

The defeats were widely anticipated. Republican Senator John Kennedy spoke of the futility of the vote before it went ahead:

For President Donald Trump, the ongoing stalemate in government has meant as postponement of the annual State of the Union address.

Last week, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi wrote to President Trump, asking him to postpone the address, which has never been given during a government shutdown.

This resulted in a diplomatic game of tit-for-tat, as President Trump proceeded to cancel Mrs Pelosi’s flights for a diplomatic mission to Afghanistan.

This week, Mrs Pelosi wrote to President Trump again, informing him that she would not allow him to speak in the House of Representatives. The president must have the joint permission of the head of the House of Representatives and the Senate to speak in Congress.

On Thursday, President Trump announced that he would postpone the State of the Union address until a time could be found when it could be made in Congress.

The government shutdown continues.