WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited President Donald Trump to deliver the State of the Union address on Feb. 5, a week later than originally planned.
Trump was scheduled to deliver the State of the Union on Tuesday, Jan. 29, but Pelosi said it should be rescheduled until after the government shutdown. When Trump last week indicated that he still planned to come to the the Capitol on that date, Pelosi refused. Trump eventually agreed.
“When I wrote to you on January 23rd, I stated that we should work together to find a mutually agreeable date when government has reopened to schedule this year’s State of the Union address,” Pelosi wrote to Trump. “In our conversation today, we agreed on February 5th.”
Trump accepted and wrote to Pelosi, “It is my great honor to accept. We have a great story to tell and yet, great goals to achieve!”
After a 35-day shutdown, Trump gave in to demands to reopen the government on Friday, but only for a three-week period in which congressional lawmakers would confer on a border security package and whether that would include funding for a physical barrier.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would not rule out the possibility of a shutdown in a briefing on Monday, but said that the presidency also has the option to declare a national emergency declaration to build the border structure.
The timing of the State of the Union speech makes it all the more likely that Trump will use a portion of the address to argue once again that there is a humanitarian crisis at the border and that a physical structure is needed.