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“Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan has been postponed. We will rescheduled this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over,” Trump wrote in a Thursday letter.
NPR reportsthat Pelosi and other Congressional Democrats were already en route to the airport when Trump intervened. His decision came as a surprise to her office,according to Politico, and possibly as a surpriseto the Department of Defense. It wasn’t just Pelosi: Politico reports that, according to the Trump administration, all travel for CODELs is canceled.
Pelosi said that because the Secret Service had not been funded in the shutdown, the State of the Union’s security could not be guaranteed.
“She understands political leverage. She wields the knife,” one Senate aidetold theWashington Postof Pelosi after she sent her letter.
Trump ended his letter: “I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event [Pelosi’s planned trip] is totally appropriate. I also feel that, during this period, it would be better if you were in Washington negotiating with me.”
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On Twitter Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill,wrote that the tripto Afghanistan was “to express appreciation & thanks to our men & women in uniform for their service & dedication, & to obtain critical national security & intelligence briefings from those on the front lines.”
Hammill said the delegation was only stopping in Brusselsfor rest for the pilotand had not planned to stop in Egypt.
He also highlightedan NBC reportthat the Treasury secretary would still plan to attend the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. (Later Thursday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump canceled the trip.)
The government shutdown, which has leftabout 800,000 federal employees without pay, enters its 28th day on Friday and is already the longest shutdown in American history.
It began on on Dec. 22 over Trump’s insistence for a southern border wall.
He claims such a barrier is needed to stave off a “crisis” of drugs, violence and human trafficking. Newly empowered Congressional Democrats, arguing they were elected as a check on Trump, have dismissed this as immoral and ineffective.
There is no clear end in sight, given the underlying political dynamics between both sides and the White House’s intractability over a proposed wall. Last week Trump conceded only this: That the barrier could be made of steel and not concrete.
source: people.com
