On January 17, 2019, President Trump denied an aircraft for Nancy Pelosi's planned trip overseas. This comes after the Speaker of the House called for the President to delay his State of the Union speech amid the government shutdown.
Yes, the government is still shut down after 28 days, making this the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
Naturally, I think that the members of Congress, including both Democrats and Republicans, should be meeting with the President daily in the effort to end the shutdown. Given this, Trump's move to cancel the Speaker's aircraft and essentially cancel her trip out of the country was a reasonable one.

Drew Hammill, Spokesman for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, posted the above comment to Twitter in response to Trump's move to curb Pelosi's trip. Hammill references Trump's trip to Iraq around Christmas to visit the troops. I think that his use of this trip to justify Pelosi's trip is flawed. The President was maintaining a presidential tradition to visit our troops, and was simultaneously receiving harsh criticism from the media, who thought that the President did not plan to go. His trip was also in the early days of the shutdown when there was not as much pressure to end it as there is now. Therefore, it seems best for Nancy Pelosi, among other Democrats, to stay in Washington to negotiate with the President on an end to the shutdown.

The above tweet is from Lindsey Graham, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Lindsey Graham, who has flip-flopped on his opinion on the President, actually criticized both Trump and Pelosi on Twitter. Though I usually agree with Senator Graham, I think that his reasoning here is lacking. President Trump's decision to cancel the Speaker's aircraft did not exactly cancel her trip, as there are other ways for her get out of the country other than on a military plane. In addition, I think Trump's move was simply in response to Pelosi's ill-timed call for a delay to the State of the Union address.
Nevertheless, I echo the calls of millions of Americans for the President and the members of Congress to come together and open the government.
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