Trump will attempt bipartisanship at the State of the Union on Tuesday.
After a week’s delay resulting from the government shutdown and a standoff between President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the State of the Union is finally here.
The president’s annual address will take place on Tuesday, February 5, starting at 9 pm Eastern time. It will be shown on major television networks, including ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, and streamed on C-SPAN and, for Spanish speakers, on Telemundo, among other outlets. The White House will also stream the speech.
The lead-up to this year’s address has been unusually contentious, largely because of the partial government shutdown that shuttered nine major government departments and left 800,000 federal workers furloughed or forced to work without pay for five weeks. Trump insisted on $5.7 billion for some 200 miles of wall construction at the US-Mexico border and refused to sign any government funding legislation without it. He finally agreed to a temporary deal to reopen the government on January 25, but that funding only lasts through February 15. Trump says he still wants the wall.
This year’s State of the Union was initially set for January 29, but during the shutdown, Pelosi essentially uninvited Trump from delivering the speech. She cited security concerns and said he could give the address once the government was reopened. Trump initially resisted, saying he had no security concerns and wanted to go ahead with the speech as planned.
He could have done the State of the Union somewhere else, but not in the House of Representatives, where Pelosi, constitutionally, decides what goes and what doesn’t. So he conceded.
After the shutdown ended, Pelosi reinvited Trump.
Tuesday’s State of the Union will take place in the time period in which the White House and congressional leaders are supposedly working out a deal on government funding, border security, and immigration in order to avoid another impasse and shutdown.
