Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.
A congressional trip to visit U.S. troops in the Afghanistan war zone has been officially canceled, thanks to Trump’s reckless and childish act of revenge against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
On Thursday, Trump publicly released a letter to Pelosi informing her that her trip with other members of Congress had been “postponed” because of the government shutdown Trump has refused to end. Trump was denying Pelosi and other members of the delegation use of military aircraft to make the journey — but suggested she could fly commercially if the trip was so important to her.
Visiting U.S. troops was so important to Pelosi that she and her colleagues decided to do exactly that. So Trump ruined that too.
“After President Trump revoked the use of military aircraft to travel to Afghanistan, the delegation was prepared to fly commercially to proceed with this vital trip to meet with our commanders and troops on the front lines,” said Drew Hammill, spokesman for Pelosi, in a statement Friday morning.
Apparently, the House speaker’s determination to visit with our troops did not sit well with Trump.
“This morning, we learned that the Administration had leaked the commercial travel plans as well,” Hammill said.
Leaking such highly sensitive information — all out of an act of unbelievable pettiness, in an attempt to punish and humiliate Pelosi — led the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service to determine that the danger to Pelosi, her colleagues, and the troops she was going to visit “had significantly increased,” according to Hammill.
“In light of the grave threats caused by the President’s action, the delegation has decided to postpone the trip so as not to further endanger our troops and security personnel, or the other travelers on the flights,” Hammill said.
It is disgraceful enough that Trump would try to prevent members of Congress from fulfilling one of their obligations to meet with troops and military leaders stationed in a war zone, to punish them for refusing to give him $5 billion to build a wall.
It is, however, much worse that he would endanger not only their safety but the safety of our military in order to carry out his petulant act of vengeance.
In his Thursday letter, Trump claimed that “postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate” because of the 800,00 federal workers whose paychecks he is holding hostage because of his shut down.
But Trump has made it abundantly clear that he couldn’t care less about those workers. Earlier this month, he has baselessly claimed that those workers are happy to sacrifice their paychecks to the “higher purpose” of his ransom demand.
Those workers are facing an increasingly dire financial situation, forced to rely on donations and food banks to support their families during Trump’s extended tantrum.
“Whether here or abroad, the Speaker always thanks our troops, diplomats and intelligence community for their heroism and service,” Pelosi’s spokesperson said.
Sadly, the supposed commander in chief doesn’t share that sentiment. He’d much rather inflict a childish and dangerous insult because he’s not getting what he wants — even if that puts our troops in danger.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
