President Donald J. Trump Calls Pelosi's Bluff: I Plan On Showing Up For My Speech, Based On Your Original Invitation https://media.townhall.com/townhall/reu/ha/2019/17/4df00bc9-9e5b-453c-85e2-98152774e444.png Last week was dominated with pettiness and silliness, as President Trump responded to Speaker Pelosi's cheap 'State of the Union' stunt with some retaliatory theater of his own.  Pelosi hid behind the Secret Service and DHS to raise bogus "security concerns," only to insult those very public servants when they contradicted her unfounded sloppiness.  Then Trump foraged about for a hammer with which to clobber Pelosi in return, settling on the abrupt cancelation of an overseas trip.  But since that display of mutual childishness, the president has made two smart plays: First, he adopted a constructive tone and approach in putting a compromise deal on the table over the weekend, making Democrats' preemptive rejection look small and stubborn.  Even the Washington Post editorial board is starting to question Pelosi's posture as this impasse enters its second month.  Democrats may not have been able to sign onto the entirety of Trump's BRIDGE Act-for-barriers exchange (these likely poison pills, intentional or not, would have needed to be addressed regardless), but at least it was a real effort to move from 'no' to 'yes.'   Second, as Katie mentioned yesterday, Trump has decided to press ahead with next week's regularly-scheduled State of the Union address, essentially calling Pelosi's bluff (see update).  She's using the shutdown -- which she's taking zero realistic steps to end -- as a pretext to reschedule, but Trump is rightly pointing out that she extended the invitation for January 29th during the shutdown:   Donald J. Trump ✔  @realDonaldTrump Nancy, I am still thinking about the State of the Union speech, there are so many options - including doing it as per your written offer (made during the Shutdown, security is no problem), and my written acceptance. While a contract is a contract, I’ll get back to you soon! That was Sunday.  The White House forged ahead on Tuesday.  Pelosi asked, Trump accepted, and now he's indicating that it's his intention to show up and give the speech as planned.  This leaves Pelosi with two bad options: (1) Formally rescind the invitation and try to bar Trump from delivering the annual address inside the House chamber, as has become the longstanding tradition, or (2) back down, then devise some other method of undermining his message.  The first route would represent an escalation of pettiness and an unusual breach of protocol -- neither of which may play terribly well with the public, especially against the backdrop of her staunch refusal to negotiate a compromise.  The second route would look like a surrender, and would raise additional dilemmas about how to handle the resulting optics.  Allahpundit sees pitfalls ahead: ( Full Story In Link Below ) https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2019/01/23/trump-is-smart-to-forge-ahead-with-state-of-the-union-as-originally-scheduled-n2539462