Throughout the entirety of the government shutdown, which began on December 22 and is now on day 33, President Trump has maintained that he will not agree to any deal to re-open the government if it does not include the $5.7 billion fund he has demanded to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Despite his position, many have speculated other motives that might entice the president to put an end to the government’s current status that has left hundreds of thousands of federal employees without pay and now, the co-author of Trump’s book The Art of the Deal has offered his own suggestion, Huffington Post reported.
Tony Schwartz, who helped pen the biography released in 1987, took to his Twitter account on Tuesday, January 22, to explain the one thing he believes could drive the president to re-open the government before the end of the month, and more specifically by next Tuesday, January 29 — to be able to give the State of the Union address to Congress.
“It’s always, always about his vanity,” Schwartz reasoned in his tweet.
Schwartz often takes to his account on the social media platform to denounce President Trump, whose popularity he partly takes blame for. Shortly before Trump’s win in the 2016 presidential election, the author told the New Yorker he felt like he had “put lipstick on a pig” with his work on the best-selling biography.
“I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is,” he said.
There is one reason I can imagine Trump finding a way to open the government by January 29. He desperately wants to give the State of the Union to Congress. It’s always, always about his vanity.
— Tony Schwartz (@tonyschwartz) January 23, 2019
As previously reported by the Inquisitr , House Speaker Nancy Pelosi requested last week that the president postpone giving his State of the Union address until the government re-opens, citing safety concerns since both the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security are two of the agencies that have been affected by the shutdown.
Today, I wrote to @realDonaldTrump recommending that we delay the State of the Union until after government re-opens, as the @SecretService , the lead federal agency for #SOTU security, faces its 26th day without funding. https://t.co/K2oL8WGvqo pic.twitter.com/g3fIlxDbbK
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 16, 2019
But despite Pelosi’s request, it appears that the president still plans to go through with the speech as scheduled, Newsweek noted, as indicated by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this week.
“Nancy Pelosi made an invitation to the President on the State of the Union, he accepted, she cited security concerns as a potential reason to delay it, those concerns were addressed by the Department of Homeland Security and the United States Secret Service. At this point, we’re moving forward,” she told reporters.
As noted by Newsmax , Sanders echoed the intention this morning when she appeared on Fox & Friends , revealing that the White House has a “plan B” in case Pelosi officially rescinds her invitation to the president.
