Trump signals government shutdown will 'go on for a while' after Pelosi cancels State of the Union address

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Vice President Mike Pence, President Donald Trump, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., argue during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018, in Washington.

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday called off President Donald Trump's State of the Union address. 
• Trump subsequently signaled that the government shutdown will continue "for a while." 
• Trump said Democrats have been "radicalized" and it's "really a shame." 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday sent a letter to President Donald Trump cancelling his State of the Union address, prompting the president to signal he won't budge on the government shutdown and it will continue. 

Pelosi in her letter said, "When I extended an invitation on January 3 for you to deliver the State of the Union address, it was on the mutually agreed upon date, January 29.  At that time, there was no thought that the government would still be shut down. In my further correspondence of January 16, I said we should work together to find a mutually agreeable date when government has re-opened and I hope that we can still do that.'

Read more: Nancy Pelosi suggests Trump either postpone his State of the Union address until after the government shutdown ends, or submit it in writing

She added, "I am writing to inform you that the House of Representatives will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the President's State of the Union address in the House Chamber until government has opened."

Pelosi said she looked forward to welcoming Trump to the House upon "a mutually agreeable date for this address when government has been opened."

Reacting to Pelosi's letter, Trump said Democrats have been "radicalized" and it's "really a shame." 

"They don't want to see crime stopped, which we can easily do on the southern border," Trump said. "This will go on for a while."

The president and Pelosi have sparred over his State of the Union address, originally scheduled for January 26, in recent days.

The State of the Union quarrel has been a smaller skirmish in Trump's larger battle for funding for a wall along the US-Mexico border, which he says is necessary for border security.

Many immigration experts and even some prominent Republican politicians along the border do not agree with Trump on the matter of the wall, and statistics do not support the notion that a decrease in undocumented immigration will lead to a decrease in crime, as Trump has suggested. 

Read more: The complete history of the US State of the Union address

Trump's demand for $5.7 billion toward the border wall and the Democratic leadership's refusal to give in to this request have pushed the government into a partial shutdown. 

The shutdown is the longest in US history by far, and based on Trump's comments on Wednesday has no end in sight.