President Trump is perhaps the best troll ever to roam the internet. And he loves it.
He also loves needling Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who’s about to be Trump’s best friend in the 2020 election (after she takes over as House Speaker in January).
On Thursday, after the House voted to add $5.7 billion for security and a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border back into a spending bill, the president gave the California Democrat a little kick.
“Soon to be Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, last week live from the Oval Office, that the Republicans didn’t have the votes for Border Security. Today the House Republicans voted and won, 217-185. Nancy does not have to apologize. All I want is GREAT BORDER SECURITY!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Zing!
After House Republicans had initially bailed on funding the wall, Pelosi was pictured dancing in delight (in some ironic timing, the short clip caught her bobbing to the song “American Pie,” just as the singer sings “I saw Satan laughing with delight….”).
Pelosi had taunted Trump last week in an Oval Office meeting, saying he couldn’t get the wall funding through the House. “The fact is you do not have the votes in the House,” Pelosi told Trump.
“Nancy, I do,” he said, to which Pelosi replied, “Well, let’s take the vote and we’ll find out.”
The House voted: Trump won.
House Republicans also piled in after they passed the funding bill. “Nancy Pelosi learned two things today,” Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) said in a statement Thursday night. “First, it’s not 2009 anymore. Second, hubris is not the same as leadership – you don’t get to march into the Oval Office and dictate your demands without compromise.”
“I think a lot of folks thought she was bluffing, but we needed to prove it, and us proving it is a good step,” said Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX), according to The Hill.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) said Friday that the vote was a show of force to Pelosi.
“We just gave him serious leverage in whatever negotiations he is going to have with the Senate,” Scalise said on Fox News. “They have to confront this issue knowing that we have the president’s back in the House.”
