Journalism of Courage
US President Donald Trump on Thursday reacted to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing her retirement from Congress, calling it ‘a great thing for America.’
“The retirement of Nancy Pelosi is a great thing for America. She was evil, corrupt, and only focused on bad things for our country,” Trump said, in a quote shared on social media by Fox News host Peter Doocy.
“She was rapidly losing control of her party and she was never coming back,” Trump further said, according to Doocy. “I’m very honored she impeached me twice and failed miserably twice. Nancy Pelosi is a highly overrated politician.”
The 85-year-old Pelosi on Thursday announced that she will not seek reelection to the US House, bringing to a close her storied career in which she represented San Francisco for nearly 40 years. Pelosi was also the first woman to become the US House Speaker and is widely considered among the most powerful women in American politics.
During her first tenure, from 2007 to 2011, she steered the House in passing landmark legislation into law — the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd-Frank financial reforms in the aftermath of the Great Recession, and a repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy against LGBTQ service members.
Pelosi became the first speaker to regain the office in some 50 years, and her second term, from 2019 to 2023, became potentially more consequential than the first, particularly as the Democratic Party’s antidote to Trump.
Trump was impeached by the House — twice — first in 2019 for withholding US aid to Ukraine as it faced a hostile Russia at its border and then in 2021, days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. The Senate acquitted him in both cases.
Pelosi stood up the January 6 special committee to probe Trump’s role in sending his mob of supporters to the Capitol, when most Republicans refused to investigate, producing the 1,000-page report that became the first full accounting of what happened as the defeated president tried to stay in office.
After Democrats lost control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections, Pelosi announced she would not seek another term as party leader.
Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, Pelosi faced a potential primary challenge in California. Left-wing newcomer Saikat Chakrabarti, who helped Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s political rise in New York, has mounted a campaign, and state Senator Scott Wiener is also said to be considering a run.
