President Trump ’s annual State of the Union address is now in need of an address. There’s a serious parting of ways between the president…
President Trump ’s annual State of the Union address is now in need of an address. There’s a serious parting of ways between the president and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who insists there will be no address, and no site for the address until the federal government is reopened. Or something. Mr. Trump called this proclamation a “great blotch” on the nation and said the show must on. This one is a cliffhanger.
But wait. Let’s suppose Mr. Trump opts to go down to the southern U. S. border and make his address there. He could go aloft on Air Force One, or return to some swell local arena from his campaign days. Interesting ideas. But under such different circumstances, would the speech still be official?
“It is if the president says it is, to my understanding. If the president says, ‘This is the constitutionally mandated State of the Union message to Congress, even though I am delivering it in Albuquerque,’ it would still be the State of the Union. But it wouldn’t look or feel like States of the Union speeches of the past,” said CNBC’s Eamon Javers, who was asked about the possibilities by his peers at the network — and threw out the New Mexico city just as an example.
“I can’t remember anything like this ever happening before. It shows you just how off the norm we are here in Washington. He could go to the border, he could go to a friendly red state, he could go to suburban Virginia, outside of the Beltway,” Mr. Javers noted.
Or he could go to Raleigh, North Carolina. State Rep. Tim Moore has offered his own historic statehouse as a substitute site, advising the president that taking his message beyond “the nation’s gilded capital to a state government venue reflects the priorities of your administration, and those of our Congress.”
Mr. Trump also could deliver the address right in his own backyard, and on very friendly turf.
Lest we forget, the Trump International Hotel is three blocks from the White House, right there on Pennsylvania Avenue and within site of the Capitol. The grand site — built in 1891 and the second tallest structure in the city — also is known for the splendid ivory and gold Presidential Ballroom, spanning 13,200 square feet and the very largest of such venues in Washington, D.
