By Andrew Irumba and Spy Correspondent
President Trump cancelled House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s government-funded trip abroad on Thursday as he slapped back at her for a request that he postpones his State of the Union address.
Pelosi has been scheduled to visit Brussels and Afghanistan with other lawmakers.
They were seen waiting on a bus outside a House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Thursday afternoon when White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted a letter from the president informing Pelosi that he was grounding her.
Democratic legislators were left circling the U.S. Capitol amid a mad scramble to confirm details of Trump’s decision to halt their military aircraft.
The president said in his note to Pelosi that he was remanding her plane ‘due to the shutdown’-a throwback to her request a day before, that he delays his State of the Union speech until after the government re-opens.
A White House official insisted that the president was not exacting revenge on the Democratic leader, however,
for calling on him to deliver his speech to Congress at a later date or from the White House.
It came off as retaliatory, nonetheless, and Trump ally Lindsey Graham said both party leaders ought to knock it off.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill did not comment on the politics surrounding Trump’s request but noted in tweets that the trip to Afghanistan ‘included a required stop in Brussels for pilot rest’ that the House speaker planned to fill with NATO meetings.
‘The purpose of the trip was to express appreciation & thanks to our men & women in uniform for their service & dedication, & to obtain critical national security & intelligence briefings from those on the front lines,’ Hammill said.
They’re scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum next week, and no changes to their trip have been announced.
All congressional delegation trips have been called off, the White House confirmed, until the shutdown ceases.
A White House official told DailyMail.com that Trump sent the letter to Pelosi informing her that he was calling off her trip before Sanders distributed it.
It was not clear how much of a head start the president gave the House speaker, although the official said that Trump took ‘immediate action’ to keep her from leaving on a military jet.
‘We want to keep her in Washington,’ Sanders told reporters gathered outside her office. ‘If she leaves, she guarantees that the second round of pay checks to 800,000 federal workers won’t go out. The deadline to make that deal is midnight on Tuesday. She wasn’t scheduled to be back until Wednesday. The president wants her here to negotiate.’
Pelosi had already called off a congressional recess amid the government shutdown, and the House was due to reconvene on Tuesday of next week.
But Trump grounded her in a letter, regardless, that said he was taking the extraordinary step of postponing her trip.
‘Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan has been postponed. We will reschedule this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over.
‘In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate. I also feel that, during this period, it would be better if you were in Washington negotiating with me and joining the Strong Border Security movement to end the Shutdown.
He added, ‘Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative.’
‘I look forward to seeing you soon and even more forward to watching our open and dangerous Southern Border finally receive the attention, funding, and security it so desperately deserves!’
Hammill clarified in tweets that Pelosi was never planning to travel to Egypt. Her trip was to Afghanistan by way of Brussels on a military aircraft.
Flying to Afghanistan commercially is possible via Istanbul and Dubai from Washington, D.C. But it wouldn’t be safe for Pelosi to go there, now, Democratic lawmakers argued.
‘We keep trips by government officials to war zones secret for a reason. Trump’s action to publicize @SpeakerPelosi’s trip literally puts the safety of members of Congress and their staff at risk,’ Rep. Val Demings said in a tweet.
