President Trump said late Wednesday that he would deliver his State of the Union address after the ongoing partial government shutdown is over.

“As the Shutdown was going on, [Speaker] Nancy Pelosi asked me to give the State of the Union Address,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “I agreed. She then changed her mind because of the Shutdown, suggesting a later date. This is her prerogative – I will do the Address when the Shutdown is over.”

Trump, in a subsequent tweet, expanded on earlier statements suggesting he may do an “alternative” State of the Union, writing that he was not seeking another venue because “there is no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber.”

“I look forward to giving a “great” State of the Union Address in the near future!” he added.


Trump’s move to delay delivering the annual address capped off a day of terse tit-for-tat feuding between the president and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over the speech and the partial government shutdown, which entered its 33rd day on Wednesday.

Pelosi earlier Wednesday said she would block Trump from delivering the State of the Union in the House chamber until the government reopens. The president was scheduled to deliver the speech on Jan. 29.

In a letter to Trump, the Democratic leader said she would not move forward with the legislative steps needed for the address to take place, adding that she would invite the president to deliver his speech “on a mutually agreeable date” but only “when government has been opened.”

Pelosi’s letter came hours after Trump informed her in his own letter that he would move ahead and deliver the address at the Capitol on the 29th, challenging the Speaker to scrap his plans.

“Nancy Pelosi — or Nancy, as I call her — she doesn’t want to hear the truth,” Trump told reporters at the White House, calling Pelosi’s decision “a great, great horrible mark” for the country.

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