Prez grounds Pelosi

WASHINGTON — It took President Donald Trump one day to flex his executive power back at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, denying her an aircraft for a planned trip abroad in apparent response to her attempt to delay his State of the Union address amid their government shutdown clash.

The nation’s two most powerful leaders appeared to be engaged in a game of constitutional one-upmanship, as negotiations to end the fourweek stalemate failed to produce results.

In a letter to Pelosi Thursday, Trump said that due to the shutdown a trip to Egypt, Brussels and Afghanistan would be delayed, declaring: “In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I’m sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate.”

While the shutdown dragged on, the State Department Thursday instructed all U.S. diplomats in Washington and elsewhere to return to work next week with pay, saying it had found money for their salaries at least temporarily despite the ongoing government shutdown.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had raised eyebrows among the U.S. diplomatic corps last week when he proclaimed that morale at the State Department was “good” despite the shutdown and the fact that 40% of its employees in the U.S. and nearly 23% overseas had been furloughed and the rest were working without pay.