Trump administration officials will not make the trek to the Davos World Economic Forum this month in light of the partial government shutdown.
President Donald Trump recently announced he would not make the trip to the Davos conference due to the ongoing partial government shutdown. On Thursday he announced that he was also canceling the trip for the rest of the U.S. delegation to the event.
“Out of consideration for the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay and to ensure his team can assist as needed, President Trump has canceled his Delegation’s trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a late Thursday statement.
The decision announcement came just hours after the president canceled the trip of a delegation of Democrats to the Middle East that was set to leave Thursday afternoon. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was among the delegation of Democrats set to leave the country for a week while 800,000 federal workers are furloughed during the partial government shutdown. Democrat congressional leadership has refused to negotiate and recently skipped a White House meeting to fund a border barrier and security and reopen the government.
It was just two days ago that the White House released a list of the presidential delegation to Switzerland for Davos that had been updated to reflect the president would not attend. That delegation included trip leader Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Coordination Chris Liddell.
The World Economic Forum in Davos runs January 22-25 this year.
Michelle Moons is a White House Correspondent for Breitbart News — follow on Twitter @MichelleDiana and Facebook