Nancy Pelosi just totally owned Donald Trump
On Tuesday evening, Donald Trump spent the better part of two hours stumbling his way through a disjointed, divisive, and ultimately ineffective speech. Over his one shoulder, Mike Pence took his best shot at playing evil cheerleader. Over Trump’s other shoulder, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi spent the evening totally owning him.
Donald Trump tried hard to take away Nancy Pelosi’s thunder when he “accidentally” launched into his speech before she could formally introduce him. But even though he didn’t let her open her mouth, her actions managed to speak volumes. At various points Pelosi was holding up a stack of papers and reading it while Trump was speaking. She had ahold of the draft copy of his speech, and she was checking to see just how far off course he was veering. But to the untrained eye, it looked like she’d had enough of his crap and was taking care of some paperwork instead.
Even as we half-jokingly wondered if Nancy Pelosi would start reading the newspaper next, she kept finding ways to twist the knife. Donald Trump’s speechwriter filled his speech with yet another of those nonpartisan lines whose sole purpose was to force both parties to applaud for him. Nancy responded to this with what comedian Patton Oswalt dubbed the “f— you clap.”
It also stood out that Nancy Pelosi wore a necklace with two reddish-orange balls around her neck, which was perhaps mere happenstance, and perhaps a reminder to Donald Trump that she has him by the balls. In any case, the updated scoreboard now reads Pelosi infinity, Trump zero.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report