Democratic lawmakers responded angrily on Thursday when their trip was cancelled by President Donald Trump even as they sat an Air Force bus on the way to Brussels and Afghanistan.

The president released a letter informing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that a trip for Democrats planned to visit U.S. troops was postponed. The act was seen as a response to Pelosi attempting to postpone the State of the Union speech, ostensibly over national security concerns.

"I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan has been postponed," the statement read. "We will reschedule this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over."

"I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is appropriate," the statement concluded.



Reporters tweeted on social media that members of Congress were furious about the cancelation, as they were sitting on a van which had to turn around and go back to Congress.

"The bus went around the block and back to the Capitol where members eventually got off," said Fox News' Jason Donner.

Democrats responded with furious statements after arriving back at the Capitol building.

"I don't understand if Mister Trump understands the laws and procedures in our country," said Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.), "I mean, I don't know what Speaker Pelosi is doing or not doing, but sometimes members take trips into dangerous areas and only announce it after the fact."

"I have been to Afghanistan on multiple occasions," added Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.). "It has never been announced that I'm going to Afghanistan. That never never happens. Never."

"This guy is so unbelievably petty," he added. "Bullies everywhere are petty insecure people and that's what this move demonstrates about his character."

"It's petty. It's small, it's vindictive," responded House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).



"All too often in the last two years, the President has acted like he's in the fifth grade. And to have someone who has that kind of character running the country is an enormous problem at every level," Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said to reporters.

"We are a co-equal branch of government, and it may not have been that way over the last two years when he had a Republican Congress willing to roll over any time he asked, but that is no longer the case," he concluded.

Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii agreed with Schiff later during an interview on CNN.

"I agree with Adam Schiff that the President is acting like a fifth-grader," Hirono said. "Although that insults fifth-graders."

"But clearly we do not have an adult in the White House," she concluded.

On Wednesday, CNN's counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd excoriated the suggestion from Pelosi that they needed to postpone the State of the Union speech over national security — he called it her "Kardashian moment."



"From a national security perspective," Mudd said, "this is a Kardashian moment. This is fake."

Here's CNN's video report about Trump shutting down the trip: