GOVERNMENT/NANCY PELOSI/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump will NOT be giving his State of the Union speech on the House floor next Tuesday [1-22-19]. That much now seems definite, following an exchange of hugely passive-aggressive letters between Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday [1-23-19]– a battle of words that ended with Pelosi informing Trump that she would not be introducing a ‘concurrent resolution’ allowing him to address a bicameral session of Congress on January 29. What it means is that we are now through the looking glass: On the 33rd day of the longest government shutdown in American history, the speaker of the House has disinvited the President of the United States from delivering his annual update to Congress — a tradition that has been around since George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address at Federal Hall in New York City on January 8, 1790. There are three certain conclusions as a result of Pelosi’s response to Trump’s letter earlier Wednesday, in which he insisted he was planning to show up to give his speech in the House next Tuesday, despite her previous letter asking him to postpone his speech or deliver it in writing a la Thomas Jefferson.”
–Chris Cillizza, “Donald Trump dared Nancy Pelosi to cancel his State of the Union speech. So she did.,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, January 23, 2019 7:19 pm