Engraved Invitations

…personally hand-delivered.

President Donald Trump has notified Congress of his intent to respond to any Iranian attack against Americans or American facilities:

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner. Such legal notice is not required, but is given nevertheless!
2:25 PM · Jan 5, 2020

Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate and Mayor Pete Buttigieg is dismayed by this form of notification.

Buttigieg said Trump is not handling the situation properly with respect to informing Congress, arguing that the Senate’s Gang of Eight—a group of top Republican and Democratic lawmakers—should have been notified.
“That heads-up to Congress is to Congress as a body, not to certain members who agree with you politically…You don’t notify Congress by tweet,” he responded.

I’ll elide the detail that notification to Congress of such matters is notification to House senior leadership as well as to Senate senior leadership.

No, what Buttigieg is upset about is that nontraditional Trump is using nontraditional means to notify Congress instead of hand delivering personally engraved notifications.

How precious.

How easily distracted.

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