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Donald Trump Postpones SOTU Address Until After Shutdown

Speaker Nanci Pelosi made it clear that the House would refuse to authorize Trump to give a State of the Union address in the House Chamber until the shutdown ends.
Donald Trump Postpones SOTU Address Until After Shutdown
TOPSHOT – Federal employees holding empty plates stage a rally to call for a vote on the shutdown on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 23, 2019. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)
By Breanna Edwards ·
After a weeklong battle with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Donald Trump backed down, agreeing to hold the State of the Union address after the government shutdown has ended…whenever that is. Late Wednesday night, the president tweeted: “…there is no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber. I look forward to giving a ‘great” State of the Union Address in the near future!’ It is not clear why the president put ‘great’ in quotation marks, but perhaps that was a Freudian slip. The “decision” came after Trump first put his foot down, intending to make the speech in spite of the shutdown, even going so far as to consider another location to give the speech. Pelosi stepped up and informed Trump that the House wouldn’t approve a resolution allowing him to address Congress until the shutdown ended. “I look forward to welcoming you to the house on a mutually agreeable date for this address when goverment has opened,” Pelosi wrote before signing her letter. The president is not able to speak in front of a joint session of Congress without both of the chambers’ permission. The House, controlled by the Democrats, has continually blasted the President for his insistence on holding the government hostage in his attempt to secure a border wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s been well over a month since parts of the federal government shut down on Dec. 22, with no seeming end in sight. Meanwhile, workers impacted by the shutdown will miss their second paycheck this week. Some 420,000 people are working without pay, according to Vox, while 300,000 are neither working nor being paid. According to CNN, the Senate is holding a pair of test votes on competing proposals to end the shutdown, although neither is expected to pass. However, a bipartisan group of senators plan to continue the discussion about ways to reopen the government, while cutting a deal on immigration
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