US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has blocked House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi from travelling to Brussels and Afghanistan by denying her the use of military aircraft for her trip.

He made the decision after Ms Pelosi called on him to delay his State of the Union address and end the federal government shutdown, which enters its 29th day today.

Mr Trump is refusing to budge on his demand for $5.7 billion (£4.4bn) of federal money to build a wall on his country’s border with Mexico, a key pledge of his election campaign.

However, Democrats are refusing to grant his request and Mr Trump has responded by refusing to sign a cross-party budget that doesn’t include the wall funding, leading to the longest government shutdown in US history.

In a letter shared on Twitter, Mr Trump said: “I also feel that, during this period, it would be better if you were in Washington negotiating with me and joining the Strong Border Security movement to end the Shutdown.”

Some 800,000 federal employees have not been paid as a result of the deadlock. They face another month without their salaries as the stalemate continues.