Donald Trump has been busy gearing up to deliver the 2019 State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. However, newly reelected Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has also been busy — and recently pulled a grenade out of her political bag of tricks just in time to ruin Trump’s favorite moment in the spotlight.
Politics
While ‘The Donald’ was busy continuing his temper-tantrum by keeping the US government closed unless he’s paid a $5 billion dollar ransom to build his border wall, Speaker Pelosi showed Trump there’s a new sheriff in town and canceled the January 29th State of the Union address.
“Since the start of modern budgeting in Fiscal Year 1977, a State of the Union address has never been delivered during a government shutdown,” Speaker Pelosi wrote in a memo to Trump, noting that the agencies needed to secure the event — the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security — have not been funded and are therefore non-operational.
“Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29,” the speaker continued.
Ouch!
She later reiterated her message in an appearance on CNN, sarcastically suggesting, “He can make it from the Oval Office if he wants.”
In case you’re wondering, as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi has every right to disinvite Donald Trump from delivering his State of the Union address to Congress.
“It’s the House speaker’s prerogative to invite the President to give the State of the Union,” explained political analysts Phil Mattingly and Ted Barrett. “While there’s no precedent for it (that we’re aware of), if Pelosi decides the President shouldn’t go to the Capitol to speak on January 29, the President will not go on January 29.”
They added: “Keep in mind, in order to green light the State of the Union, both the House and the Senate have to pass resolutions. Neither have done so yet — and Pelosi controls whether the House passes one at all.”
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer also weighed in.
“The speaker is the one who invites the president to speak at the joint session, and she has said as long as government is shut down we’re not going to be doing business as usual,” he said. Mr. Hoyer added that even if Donald Trump were to barge in the door uninvited, the House sergeant-at-arms could (and would) literally remove him from the floor.
The mandate from Speaker Pelosi is shrewd but crystal clear: Donald Trump can give a speech on January 29th if he wants. However, the (now-Democratically controlled) House of Representatives will not hand him the platform of a bipartisan session of Congress to speak unless and until he reopens the US government.
Oh, and just in case the politically naive Donald Trump is still unclear on the powers of Congress and the new Speaker of the House, Pelosi dropped this additional caveat for him to consider:
“The Constitution established the legislative, executive and judicial branches as co-equal branches of government, to be a check and balance on each other.” Then, when The New York Times asked if she considers herself to be Trump’s equal, Pelosi responded: “The Constitution does.”
CHECK. AND. MATE!!
I read this article earlier but I had to stop and laugh for about ten minutes before I could respond. Oh brother this is too funny. Trump is so used to getting his way in life all the time he is no where near ready to deal with real politics in DC. Nancy just one upped him on the shut down. Now let’s see how he responds to this. Lol but when she told him he could read his speech from the oval office I almost spit out my coffee.