Trump lockout during shutdown
In a high-stakes case of dare and double-dare, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi served notice yesterday that President Donald Trump won’t be allowed to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress next week.
She took the step after Trump said he planned to show up in spite of Democratic objections to the speech taking place when big swaths of the government are shut down.
Denied that grand venue, Trump promised to come up with some sort of alternative event. But the White House was scrambling to find something matching the gravitas of the traditional address from the dais of the House to lawmakers from both parties, Supreme Court justices, invited guests and a television audience of millions.
‘‘I think that’s a great blotch on the incredible country that we all love,’’ Trump said. ‘‘It’s a great, great horrible mark.’’
Fireworks over the speech shot back and forth between the Capitol and the White House as the month-long partial government shutdown showed no signs of ending and with about 800,000 federal workers facing the prospect of going without their second paycheck in a row come tomorrow.
Pelosi told Trump the House won’t approve a resolution allowing him to address Congress until the shutdown ends. Trump shot back that Pelosi was afraid of hearing the truth.
The drama surrounding the State of the Union address began last week when Pelosi asked Trump to make other plans but stopped short of denying him the chamber for his address. Trump called her bluff yesterday in a letter, saying he intended to come anyway.
‘‘It would be so very sad for our Country if the State of the Union were not delivered on time, on schedule, and very importantly, on location,’’ he wrote.
Pelosi quickly squelched the speech, writing back that the House ‘‘will not consider a concurrent resolution authorising the President’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber until government has opened.’’
The president cannot speak in front of a joint session of Congress without both chambers’ explicit permission.
The Constitution states only that the president ‘‘shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union,’’ meaning the president can speak anywhere he chooses or give his update in writing.
The address has been delayed before.
Ronald Reagan’s 1986 State of the Union address was postponed after the Challenger space shuttle exploded in flight on January 28 of that year.
Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Jimmy Carter issued their final messages in print.
As Eisenhower recovered from a heart attack in 1956, he prepared a seven-minute, filmed summary of the message from his retreat in Key West, Florida, that was broadcast nationwide. Richard Nixon sent a printed message in 1973; his staff said an oral message would have come too soon after his second inaugural address.