He lets her get away with murder! From Chief WaPo today:
In the two weeks since she reclaimed the speaker’s gavel, Pelosi has moved aggressively to leverage her decades of congressional experience to needle, belittle and undercut Trump with swipes at his competence and even his masculinity.
Yet,
Trump was largely indifferent to Pelosi’s letter Wednesday...
And that is the pattern! Trump does not counterpunch Pelosi. The incredibly thin-skinned Cowardly Lyin' Trump, the famed counterpuncher has ignored Pelosi's slights and pulled his punches. Now maybe Trump didn't fully comprehend the letter, remember he did not fully comprehend Jim Mattis' resignation later as an attack on him, but this strokes no punches for Pelosi goes back aways: the first "Chuck and Nancy" Show Live! From the Oval Office in Washington, D.C.! Schumer has since earned Trump's signature badge of enmity, a nickname, "Cryin'" I think it is. Pelosi? Nothing.
When Russia's slate of candidates were running in the midterm elections, they made seem each of their races was against Pelosi personally, most infamously David Brat. Trump hardly mentioned her on the trail.
When God's Party of Angels in Blue took 40 of the Reds' seats Trump congratulated Pelosi. In what I recall as a separate tweet Trump wrote something like "Democrats would be nuts not to elect Nancy Pelosi Speaker. Maybe some Republicans will help her win!"
Are you serious? Tres unusual.
Then there was the second episode of Chuck and Nancy. The undersigned opined the other day that the government shutdown just "feels" different to him from the other Trump bird pumps, that if Trump is a one-termer (or less) we will gesture back to Chuck and Nancy II as the tipping point. Does it not feel like that to you?
Nancy Pelosi seems to throw off Trump's political gyroscope somehow. He does not make good decisions when her magnet is in the same room with him. Chuck and Nancy II was a completely unforced error by Trump.
"If we don't get what we want ... I will shut down the government. I am proud to shut down the government for border security. ... I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I won't blame you for it."
A seeming nanosecond later that's what he did--and then tried to blame the Democrats. We are a stupid people, Americans are, but to treat us as if we are so stupid that we forget from nanosecond to nanosecond is to insult whatever residual, nominally human, intelligence we have.
That statement, broadcast live, as was the entire pow-wow--over the repeated suggestions of Schumer that they go behind closed doors--was an unforced error by Trump, it was as if his political gyroscope was pointing south and Trump thought it was still pointing north. That statement has been an albatross around Trump's neck ever since--one that he could easily take off at any time, but has refused to.
Pelosi has kept Trump painted into a corner. The “beaded curtain, or something” was brilliant mocking sarcasm. The “suggestion” that he write his State of the Union address was an example of a boomerang strategy: take your opponent’s argument, make it your own, and throw it right back at him. She has constantly kept Trump constantly on the defensive.
Is it that Nancy Pelosi is just so much better, smarter, more shrewd, than Trump? That she is "satin and steel" as one of her caucus members described her? That "she's just a badass," as another did? That "She wields the knife" (sheathed in satin) and "understands political leverage," as an aide to Mitch McConnell puts it?
She has been deliberately trying to get under his skin and “to talk to him in a way he understands,” according to one person familiar with her views.-WaPo
“It’s a temper tantrum,” Pelosi said after Trump stalked out of a negotiating session last week. “I’m the mother of five, grandmother of nine. I know a temper tantrum when I see one.”
She has been deliberately trying to get under his skin and “to talk to him in a way he understands,” according to one person familiar with her views.-WaPo
“It’s a temper tantrum,” Pelosi said after Trump stalked out of a negotiating session last week. “I’m the mother of five, grandmother of nine. I know a temper tantrum when I see one.”
Calculated to get under his skin: That temper tantrum stuff, the #AlertTheDaycareStaff "Baby Trump" really does get under Trump's skin.
“She is a woman of power who knows how to use it and is not at all cowed by what [Trump’s] reaction is to her. It’s not a concern."
Was not Hillary Clinton a woman of power? Is not Robert Mueller a man of power?
White House aides said Trump respects Pelosi...
Does Trump not respect Mueller?
Trump is a proud counterpuncher, but when it comes to Pelosi, he has pulled back on his jabs. That is deliberate, aides and advisers said, because the president believes she would help protect him from impeachment and because he considers her more reasonable than other Democrats.
Whoa! Trump's political gyroscope has gone haywire if he thinks Nancy Pelosi will protect him from impeachment. Trump's mental wiring is haywire anyway.
So Trump fears Nancy Pelosi? Put those two together: respect+power. Respect plus power can produce fear. Pelosi has power, has the power to impeach him and thinks she will "protect" him from impeachment? Ho ho ho. Robert Mueller has power too, has more power to affect impeachment than Nancy Pelosi does! and yet Trump has gone after Mueller repeatedly.
Doesn't it strike you as it did just me that the combination of respect and power puts Pelosi in a class with a single other member, Vladimir Putin, who Trump fears, who Trump wrongly believes will not harm him.
I don't know why Trump would respect Nancy Pelosi and not Robert Mueller. Or fear Pelosi and not Mueller. Neither of those makes any sense to me. But it is true that the only other person besides Pelosi who he treats with kid gloves is Vladimir Putin. We do not yet know what, if anything, Putin has on Trump that so cows Trump and I do not know why he would fear Pelosi or think that Pelosi and Putin are his friends who will help him. I do not know how Trump's mind works.
“She is a woman of power who knows how to use it and is not at all cowed by what [Trump’s] reaction is to her. It’s not a concern."
Was not Hillary Clinton a woman of power? Is not Robert Mueller a man of power?
White House aides said Trump respects Pelosi...
Does Trump not respect Mueller?
Trump is a proud counterpuncher, but when it comes to Pelosi, he has pulled back on his jabs. That is deliberate, aides and advisers said, because the president believes she would help protect him from impeachment and because he considers her more reasonable than other Democrats.
Whoa! Trump's political gyroscope has gone haywire if he thinks Nancy Pelosi will protect him from impeachment. Trump's mental wiring is haywire anyway.
So Trump fears Nancy Pelosi? Put those two together: respect+power. Respect plus power can produce fear. Pelosi has power, has the power to impeach him and thinks she will "protect" him from impeachment? Ho ho ho. Robert Mueller has power too, has more power to affect impeachment than Nancy Pelosi does! and yet Trump has gone after Mueller repeatedly.
Doesn't it strike you as it did just me that the combination of respect and power puts Pelosi in a class with a single other member, Vladimir Putin, who Trump fears, who Trump wrongly believes will not harm him.
I don't know why Trump would respect Nancy Pelosi and not Robert Mueller. Or fear Pelosi and not Mueller. Neither of those makes any sense to me. But it is true that the only other person besides Pelosi who he treats with kid gloves is Vladimir Putin. We do not yet know what, if anything, Putin has on Trump that so cows Trump and I do not know why he would fear Pelosi or think that Pelosi and Putin are his friends who will help him. I do not know how Trump's mind works.
