Well, this would be spectacular. Several news outlets are now reporting that Donald Trump, still absolutely fuming over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking that he delay his Jan. 29 State of the Union address until the government shutdown is over, is contemplating giving his speech on that day anyway! Maybe not to Congress itself, but somewhere!
According to multiple sources, it remains unclear whether the address scheduled for Jan. 29 will in fact go forward, or what venue it would be in.
This would be wonderful, and we highly encourage it. He could do it from the White House. He could do it from one of his precious rallies. He could do it via videotape, smuggled from Trump to Russia and back to InfoWars. He could do it from a golden Trump Tower toilet, for all we care.
What better way to make the point that Trump is a self-centered, egotistical, narcissistic stub of a man who doesn't give a damn about any consequences of the shutdown other than not being able to give his speech, than for him to insist on television time to whine about it? It would have the added benefit of doing away with the yearly pomp and nonsense of the State of the Nation address, a universally boring and smarmy session of glad-handing self-congratulation.
Where Trump won't be giving a speech on Jan. 29, unless the government shutdown ends between today and then, is to a joint session of Congress. That would have to be approved by both chambers, which has not happened and which cannot go forward without Pelosi's approval. Neither can Trump use the floor of the Senate: The required resolution inviting him to appear would require a 60-vote threshold (unless Mitch McConnell wants to draft up yet another new Senate rule exclusively for Donald Trump's purposes), and there are not 60 senators willing to polish the blowhard's boots for the sake of a fake State of the Union speech. Fifty, yes. But not 60.
If Speaker Pelosi truly wanted to mess with Trump's ego as he was off giving his State of the Union Replacement Speech, there would be ample ways to do it. There is nothing to say the House cannot be in session during that hour—and it could certainly use the time to vote, once again, to reopen the government over Trump's objections. The House could invite someone else to address the body, that evening; we haven't heard from President Barack Obama lately, and perhaps he would like to come give his own thoughts on the current situation?
It's not likely that Pelosi will do any of those things. It's not necessary, and the spectacle of Trump giving a fake State of the Union, full of rage and/or odd medicated sniffling, is demonstration enough of Trump's single-minded obsession with winning his decision to shutter large parts of the federal government in a demand to get a nonsensical wall that Republicans couldn't muster the votes for in two years of unified rule. Let him give his fake version and be done with it—then the House need not feel pressured to invite him to give a real version after the shutdown ends, and we'll all get an evening of our lives back to do better, less ridiculous things.