US President Donald Trump on Wednesday in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said he will deliver his annual address to the joint session of the US Congress as scheduled on January 29, despite her request that he delay his speech because of security concerns until a partial government shutdown is resolved.
The move is the latest in a game of political brinkmanship between Trump and Pelosi as they remain in loggerheads over the president's demand for border wall funding that has forced a partial government shutdown that is now in its second month.
Pelosi has become the face of Democratic opposition to Trump in Congress.
"There are no security concerns regarding the State of the Union address. Therefore, I will be...fulfilling my constitutional duty to deliver important information to the people and Congress of the United States of America...," Trump wrote in the letter dated January 23.
The letter was sent in response to a January 3 letter from the Speaker of the House in which she had requested the president to reschedule his State of the Union Address, expressed concern over the security of such a high-profile event in the wake of the ongoing partial government shutdown which has badly hit the functioning of the law enforcement agencies.
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