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Trump Presses Ahead on State of Union After Pelosi’s Suggestion to Delay

Trump Presses Ahead on State of Union After Pelosi’s Suggestion to Delay

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump signaled he’s pressing ahead with his planned State of the Union address by requesting a walk-through of the House chamber for the Jan. 29 speech, a week after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested it be delayed due to the government shutdown.

The request was made to House officials, according to White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and is another escalation in his battle with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The House sergeant-at-arms, one of the recipients of the White House request over the weekend, is awaiting a response from Pelosi’s office. The House would have to pass a resolution to hold the speech, which has been uncontroversial in the past.

Pelosi last week said Trump should postpone the address because of security concerns stemming from the shutdown and consider delivering it in writing instead of in-person.

A day later, Trump denied her a military plane for an unannounced trip to visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The tit-for-tat worsened their relationship and added to the difficulty of finding a resolution to the partial government shutdown that began on Dec. 22.

To contact the reporters on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net;Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum

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