Trump barred from making State of the Union address in House chamber

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has effectively blocked Donald Trump from delivering the State of the Union address, scheduled for 29 January, over the ongoing government shutdown.

Pelosi wrote to Trump, informing him that the usual invitation to address a joint sitting of Congress had been rescinded until the shutdown has been overturned.

“I am writing to inform you that 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.

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“I look forward to welcoming you to the House on a mutually agreeable date for this address when government has been opened.”

CNN reports that relations between the Democratic House and the president have hit “a new low”, adding that “none of this is even marginally normal”.

If Trump is unable to deliver his State of the Union address in person to Congress, it will be the first time a sitting US president has failed to do so since George Washington first gave his speech at Federal Hall in New York on 8 January 1790.

Trump reacted to the news by declaring that the Democrats had become “radicalised”, The Guardian says.

“They don’t want to see crime stopped, which we could very easily do on the southern border,” Trump said, before saying the government shutdown “will go on for a while”.