The moment animosity spilled over between Trump and his chief adversary

Washington: As the combative speaker of the House of Representatives during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, Democrat Nancy Pelosi became villain in chief for an outraged Republican Party.

She tried to remove the US president from power twice, with House impeachments in late 2019 and early 2021, only to see Senate Republicans acquit him.

But no moment captured the deep the animosity between Pelosi and Trump better than the president’s 2020 State of the Union address, when he refused to shake her hand upon his arrival in the House chamber.

At the conclusion of his speech, she stood up and, with a dramatic flair, ripped in half a printed copy of his speech, later saying she did so because every page contained a “lie”.

The Republicans will now have to find a new villain after Pelosi, the first woman to serve as the powerful Speaker of the US House of Representatives, declared on Friday (AEDT) that she would not run for re-election in 2026, ending the four-decade career of a progressive Democratic icon often vilified by the right.

“I will not be seeking re-election to Congress. With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service,” Pelosi, a California representative, said in a video posted on X.

The 85-year-old, first elected in 1987, made her announcement just two days after voters in California overwhelmingly approved a state redistribution measure that aims to flip five House seats to the Democrats in next year’s midterm elections.

The measure was put forward in response to a similar move by Texas to boost Republicans’ chances. And while the political strategy was spearheaded by California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, it was right in Pelosi’s wheelhouse: she has been at the forefront in battling for control of the House and in taking on Trump, who feuded with her in his first presidential term from 2017-2020.

Trump showed no signs of softening his rhetoric after Pelosi’s announcement.

“I think she was a tremendous liability to the country. I thought she was an evil woman who did a poor job across the country, a lot in damages and reputation. I thought she was terrible,” he said in remarks from the White House Oval Office. A Pelosi spokesperson did not immediately respond when asked about Trump’s comment.

Pelosi’s retirement follows years of younger Democrats chafing at elders hanging onto their positions of power and not doing enough to cultivate future leaders.

Nowhere was that more on display than in 2024 when an 81-year-old Democratic president Joe Biden limped through his debate with Trump, weeks before dropping out of the race in part due to pressure from fellow Democrats including Pelosi.

Republicans in 2021 expressed outrage at Pelosi when she rejected their recommendation that two staunch Trump defenders serve on a special committee investigating Trump’s role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

“Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts,” then-House minority leader Kevin McCarthy said.

While Pelosi accepted partisan fighting as a part of the job, the growing anger in US politics took a toll on her family in 2022, when a right-wing conspiracy theorist broke into her San Francisco home and struck her husband Paul Pelosi over the head with a hammer. He later recovered.

With her exit from the national stage at the end of 2026, when her 20th term expires, the House and Democrats nationwide will be losing one of their highest-profile liberals at a time of party upheaval.

But her move was not expected to scramble the party’s leadership races following the November 2026 midterm elections, when Democrats hope to recapture control of the 435-member House from Republicans.

Three years ago, Pelosi announced she was retiring from Democratic leadership, which included two four-year stints as speaker, from 2007-2011 and 2019-2023.

Relinquishing a job that is second in line to the presidency, after the vice president, opened the way for a younger generation of Democrats to take control.

Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York has assumed Pelosi’s former role as House Democratic leader, while Senator Chuck Schumer, 74, continues as the party leader in that chamber.

While there are tensions between Jeffries, 55, and more liberal Democrats, he is expected to be the likely choice for speaker if the party does capture control of the House.

“Nancy Pelosi is an iconic, legendary, transformational figure who has done so many things over so many years to make life better for so many people,” Jeffries said at a press conference on Monday when asked about Pelosi’s 2026 intentions.

During her tenure, Pelosi gained a reputation as a defender of human rights and an early advocate of gay rights at a time when AIDS swept through the world and especially in her hometown of
San Francisco in the 1980s and beyond.

It was her work in helping then-president Barack Obama win enactment of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as “Obamacare”, that she sees as her greatest accomplishment.

Healthcare, she told reporters in 2022, “became our big issue and that will be the biggest thing that I’ve ever done in Congress.”

With her looming exit from Washington, Congress is losing a historic figure who many saw as governing with an iron fist as she rushed, at near breakneck speed, in her trademark stiletto shoes from meeting to meeting in the Capitol.

Democrats will also lose a prolific campaign fundraiser. “I had to raise, like, a million dollars a day - well at least five days a week,” she once told reporters.

The party will also lose a Californian who proudly eschewed the state’s reputation for healthy eating. Pelosi insisted that she ate a hot dog with mustard and relish every day for lunch, plenty of Ghirardelli chocolates and a breakfast that generally included ice cream.

Reuters

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