WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump is postponing what he’s calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “seven-day excursion” to Egypt, Afghanistan and Brussels in apparent payback for asking him to reschedule his State of the Union speech because of the partial government shutdown.
Trump wrote a letter to Pelosi on Thursday informing her that her trip had been postponed and would be rescheduled after the shutdown.
He called Pelosi’s trip a “public relations event.”
He says she should stay in Washington to negotiate ways to end the shutdown, which is at a stalemate over federal funding for his desired border wall. Trump says that if she wants to make her trip by flying commercial that would “certainly be your prerogative.”
A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the trip that President Donald Trump is canceling was intended to express appreciation to U.S. troops and reaffirm the United States “ironclad commitment” to the NATO alliance.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tweeted that the previously unannounced trip was to Afghanistan, including a stop in Brussels. He said it did not include a stop in Egypt.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham says President Donald Trump’s decision to deny House Speaker Nancy Pelosi aircraft for her upcoming trip abroad is “inappropriate.”
Graham said “one sophomoric response does not deserve another.”
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