A startling claim that former President Donald Trump allegedly made Thursday about yearslong political enemy Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her family received a swift debunking from one of the former House speaker’s daughters, who called the presumptive GOP candidate “unwell, unhinged and unfit.”
Trump privately met with Washington’s Republican lawmakers in what was labeled a policy meeting, where House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) hoped to lay out the party’s legislative vision for 2025 should the former president retake the White House.
At the meeting, Trump called Pelosi’s daughter a “whacko” who allegedly told him that her mother and the former president would “be perfect together” in different circumstances, according to reporting from Punchbowl News. The candidate did not appear to specify which of Pelosi’s daughters he was referring to.
“There is an age difference, though,” the GOP candidate reportedly said of Pelosi, who is six years older than him. Trump is currently married to a woman who is 24 years younger than him.
Trump’s alleged remarks drew immediate backlash online from Christine Pelosi, the former speaker’s daughter who serves as a Democratic political strategist.
“Speaking for all 4 Pelosi daughters — this is a LIE,” Christine Pelosi posted on social media. “His deceitful, deranged obsession with our mother is yet another reason Donald Trump is unwell, unhinged and unfit to step foot anywhere near her — or the White House.”
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request to confirm Punchbowl’s reporting or to comment on Christine Pelosi’s response.
Trump and Nancy Pelosi’s disdain for each other has long been out in the open, particularly during the former president’s time in the White House when she served as speaker of the House. The former president — who was just convicted of a felony related to hush money payments — also has a history of attacking the California Democrat’s family, including when a man broke into her San Francisco home and assaulted her husband.
Trump’s alleged comment on Thursday comes just days after Nancy Pelosi publicly accused the former president and his allies of engaging in “revisionist history” regarding the deadly attempted coup carried out by his far-right followers at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has repeatedly and falsely accused Nancy Pelosi of being responsible for the delayed National Guard response to the riot, despite her not having that power.
“Today, the instigator of an insurrection is returning to the scene of the crime,” Nancy Pelosi said Thursday in a statement. “January 6th was a crime against the Capitol, that saw Nazi and Confederate flags flying under the dome that Lincoln built.”
“It was a crime against the constitution and its peaceful transfer of power, in a desperate attempt to cling to power.”