Footage of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reacting to President Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday has gone viral on social media. The California Democrat at one point appeared distressed and clutched her stick during a section about transgender participation in women’s sport.
Pelosi, now aged 84, served as speaker for the second time between January 2019 and January 2023, overlapping with Trump’s first term in the White House.
During this time, she became a vocal critic of the Trump administration and attracted widespread attention after ripping up the president’s State of the Union address in Congress during February 2020.
On Tuesday, Trump delivered a wide-ranging and politically charged address to a joint session of Congress. During it, he said, “America is back,” while celebrating the flurry of executive orders he had signed since being inaugurated as president for the second time on January 20.
This included the order Trump signed on February 5, titled ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,’ which banned transgender athletes from competing against women and girls in educational institutions and grassroots sports.
During these remarks, a television camera briefly focused on Pelosi, who slowly moved her head from side-to-side while appearing crestfallen and