That tweet took off on Twitter—but not quite the way he intended.
The hashtag “#PelosiOwnsTrump” trended after a flurry of tweets offered a vastly different interpretation of the photo Trump had posted.
His attack included a picture of Pelosi and said “Nervous Nancy’s unhinged meltdown!” But rather than seeing a “nervous” speaker, Trump’s opponents across the ideological spectrum instead said they saw an empowered politician boldly facing down the president on his 1,000th day in office and took to Twitter to challenge the president.
Bill Kristol, the founder of the now-shuttered conservative magazine The Weekly Standard, tweeted the image along with the caption “OK, maybe I am a feminist,” referencing comments he had made in the past in which he said that he was “not a feminist, nor an AOC fan.”
Meghan McCain, the host of the The View and daughter of late Arizona Senator John McCain, said that the image showed Pelosi as a “bad b**** in control of a room entirely filled with men!”
Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, wrote: “Congresswoman@SpeakerPelosi looks neither nervous nor unhinged. You, Mr. President, on the other hand …”
MSNBC host Joy Reid wrote that the “photo will wind up in history books,” a prediction echoed by Lawrence O’Donnell, the host of MSNBC’s The Last Word, who wrote that he had never before seen anyone “literally stand up to a president like that because no one ever had to. Only Trump would tweet this perfect picture of his weakness & humiliation.@SpeakerPelosi finest moment.”
Pelosi shot back by making the image her Twitter cover photo, and offered her own version of the meeting, the first between Trump and the speaker since Pelosi launched an impeachment inquiry last month. The House had issued a rare bipartisan rebuke of the president earlier Wednesday, voting to 354-60 to condemn Trump’s decision to abruptly withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.
Pelosi attributed Trump’s “meltdown” to the critical vote and said she is praying for his health.“I’m not talking about mentally. I’m talking about handling the truth,” she wrote.
The speaker has fiercely challenged Trump before, depicting him as a brash and inexperienced politician. One of the most notable exchanges came before to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, which began in December after Trump refused to fund the government unless Democrats provided $5 billion for a border wall. Following a meeting in the Oval Office, Pelosi depicted Trump as impetuous, and challenged his “manhood.”