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Donald Trump today agreed to postpone his State of the Union speech in a row with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the partial US government shutdown.
Following a high-stakes standoff with the top Democrat, the US president conceded he would delay the speech scheduled for next week until the crisis is resolved.
He announced the postponement on Twitter after Mrs Pelosi cancelled the annual address to a joint session of Congress in the Capitol.
Mrs Pelosi’s move sent the White House scrambling for an alternative venue, before the president finally admitted defeat.
Nancy Pelosi speaks to reporters after officially postponing Mr Trump's State of the Union addressAP“As the Shutdown was going on, Nancy Pelosi asked me to give the State of the Union Address. I agreed. She then changed her mind because of the Shutdown, suggesting a later date. This is her prerogative,” Mr Trump wrote in a tweet.
US president Donald Trump has agreed to postpone his State of the Union speechAFP/Getty Images“I will do the Address when the Shutdown is over. I am not looking for an alternative venue for the SOTU Address because there is no venue that can compete with the history, tradition and importance of the House Chamber,” he added.
According to reports, the White House initially considered a rally outside Washington or a speech from the Oval Office as alternatives.
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Mrs Pelosi raised the stakes in the row last Wednesday by writing to the White House to claim that security concerns triggered by the shutdown meant Mr Trump should consider calling off the address.
The president called her bluff, insisting the speech would go ahead as planned. But Mrs Pelosi stuck to her position, last night formally cancelling next Tuesday’s televised address.
She responded to Mr Trump’s concession today by asking the president to back a Democratic bill to put federal employees back to work. The Senate was due to vote today on two proposals to end the shutdown.
About 800,000 federal workers are days away from missing a second monthly pay packet in the 34-day shutdown in a political deadlock over Mr Trump’s demands that Democrats agree to $5.7 billion of public money for his border wall with Mexico.