Despite opening the government on Friday, President Donald Trump still hasn't received an invitation from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to give the State of the Union.
"Our staffs are talking from the White House and the staff from the Speaker's office as well. Listen, she [Pelosi] said she would not let us give the speech while the government was closed. Well guess what, it's open. So hopefully we can get that speech and again the president needs to take that message directly to the American people without the filter of political pundits and beltway bureacrats and defintely not the Speaker of the House. He's going to do that one way or the other," White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said on Fox and Friends over the weekend.
White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp reiterated efforts to get the speech done during an interview Monday morning.
Last week, in unprecedented fashion, Pelosi officially uninvited Trump to give the annual address. In her statement, she said a new date would be negotiated once the government was reopened.
"I am writing to inform you the House of Representatives will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the President's State of the Union address in the House Chamber until government has opened," Pelosi wrote. "I look forward to welcoming you to the House on a mutually agreeable date for this address when government has opened."
President Trump responded by saying he will give the speech when the shutdown ended.
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 - I will do the Address when the Shutdown is over. I am not looking for an....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2019
....alternative venue for the SOTU Address 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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2019
The government is open and Pelosi still hasn't sent her invitation. The question now is whether she will allow the President to give his State of the Union before February 15, when the government will shutdown again if Democrats don't come to the negotiating table with border barrier funding.
