Bluster, bombast, backing down: What happens when someone says no to Trump?

As president and during four decades in business, Donald Trump has built his brand by promoting himself as someone who never backed down. When he was hit, he often said, he’d hit back a hundred times harder.

But at pivotal moments throughout his career, when confronted by people wielding equal or greater power, Trump has proved to be someone who does back down.

This week, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pulled her invitation to President Trump to deliver the State of the Union address in the House chamber this coming Tuesday, the faceoff between congressional leader and president seemed to portend a rift that could extend well beyond the government shutdown.

Trump’s first instinct was to double down on delivering the speech, as he told Pelosi in a letter Wednesday, “on time, on schedule, and very importantly, on location!”

But hours later, the president retreated: Postponing the speech “is her prerogative,” he tweeted. “I will do the Address when the Shutdown is over.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bluster-bombast-backing-down-what-happens-when-someone-says-no-to-trump/2019/01/24/359df148-1f66-11e9-8b59-0a28f2191131_story.html?utm_term=.5d0343ca226b&wpisrc=al_trending_now__alert-politics--alert-national&wpmk=1