December 11, 2023

Nancy Pelosi just put Trump in checkmate with a brilliant response to his State of the Union letter

Trump is responsible for the longest shutdown of the federal government in American history, and not surprisingly he’s still blaming it on the Democrats. He’s holding hundreds of thousands of workers hostage without pay while demanding money for his deeply unpopular and deeply wasteful border wall.

Front and center in the shutdown conflict is the ongoing struggle between Donald Trump and the newly ascended Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). The latter has all the real leverage and has declared she won’t be giving the president any money for his racist barrier.

With no real end in sight for the shutdown, Pelosi was forced to disinvite Trump from giving his State of the Union Address to Congress out of concern that the lack of funding for the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security would make it unsafe.

Today, demonstrating once again that he has no respect for how our government functions especially when it comes to the enshrined separation of powers, Trump sent a letter to Pelosi in which he stated that he will be using the initial and since revoked invitation to give his State of the Union on January 29th despite the more recent disinvitation.

The entire document is dripping in passive-aggressiveness. More importantly, he doesn’t have the power to do this. The president must be invited to give the address. As usual, this is just hollow posturing from our reality television crackpot leader.

Shortly after the White House sent the letter to Pelosi, the Speaker sent her own, forceful letter back. She reiterated the fact that there is an ongoing government shutdown, and that because of it the State of the Union will be postponed.

Bringing her full power to bear, she informed Trump that the House of Representatives— which she controls— will not consider authorizing the president’s address until the government opens back up.

Pelosi’s letter leaves no doubt about the postponement, and Trump doesn’t have the constitutional power to overrule her.

Pelosi was soon asked on camera why she won’t let Trump deliver his State of the Union. She urged reporters to read her letter and reiterated her point that the president will not be allowed to do it while the government is closed. She then encouraged Trump to hammer out a deal in good faith.

Once again, Speaker Pelosi has shown herself to be more than a match for Trump. The Democrats are clearly in good hands.

https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/1088166595271155712

Natalie Dickinson

Natalie is a staff writer for the Washington Press. She graduated from Oberlin College in 2010 and has been freelance blogging and writing for progressive outlets ever since.