Just a reminder that this is the greatest show any of us will ever watch and we should appreciate it as such.

President @realDonaldTrump’s letter to @SpeakerPelosi concerning her upcoming travel pic.twitter.com/TtBCvwp080

— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) January 17, 2019

Either he wrote that himself or the White House comms department has adopted his Twitter style of random capitalization.

Members of Congress typically fly abroad on official trips via military aircraft. He’s the commander-in-chief so he decided that military aircraft are momentarily unavailable. Next, I assume, is Pelosi and House Dems announcing which presidential perks will no longer be funded.

Apparently, he waited until the last hour before she left to spring this. Heh:

.@SpeakerPelosi CoDel was scheduled to leave at 3pm, when @realDonaldTrump informed her that it was postponed.

— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) January 17, 2019

House Members sitting on an Air Force bus b/t the Longworth and Rayburn House Office Buildings waiting to see if they are still going overseas after Trump cancelled the trip. pic.twitter.com/e5IgidRPZu

— Jason Donner (@jason_donner) January 17, 2019

Says Drew McCoy, “It’s going to be wild watching people go after Trump on the shutdown for not helping Pelosi and other Democrats leave town in the middle of it.” Yeah, but they will. Some are already knocking him for revealing her itinerary, which is typically kept secret for security reasons until the delegation arrives at its destination. I assume the chief complaint will have to do with Afghanistan, though. It’s one thing to impede her from visiting Egypt and Brussels (home of NATO!), we’ll be told, it’s another to impede a goodwill visit to where U.S. troops are stationed. And needless to say, she’s not flying commercial into Taliban country.

Although it’d be a minor PR coup now if she did. “I won’t let the president’s pettiness stop me from seeing our soldiers. He may not care much about visiting them but I do,” etc.

It’s not just her, by the way:

A White House official says all congressional CoDels will be canceled during shutdown, not just those involving Pelosi.

— Noah Bierman (@Noahbierman) January 17, 2019

I’m very excited for the next episode of “America’s Dumbest Shutdown.” Who will be totally owned this time, Team Red or Team Blue? I think the big season finale is Trump showing up at the House chamber on the 29th to deliver the State of the Union and Pelosi having him arrested for trespassing.

Update: No sooner did I finish writing this post than the first Afghanistan-related criticism appeared. But not from a Democrat.

President Trump denying Speaker Pelosi military travel to visit our troops in Afghanistan, our allies in Egypt and NATO is also inappropriate.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 17, 2019

I wish our political leadership could find the same desire to work for common goals as those who serve our nation in uniform and other capacities.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 17, 2019