'Don't bet against Nancy Pelosi', former top aide warns Donald Trump

[nitpicker]

https://www.dw.com/en/dont-bet-against-nancy-pelosi-former-top-aide-warns-donald-trump/a-47224842

'Don't bet against Nancy Pelosi', former top aide warns Donald Trump

Date 25.01.2019
Author Michael Knigge

"I learned a long time ago not to bet against Nancy Pelosi", John Lawrence told DW in a recent interview when asked to size up the coming clash between President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which many observers think will shape the political landscape in the US over the next two years.

Lawrence should know. He worked for almost four decades as a senior Congressional staffer on Capitol Hill, the last eight years as chief of staff to Nancy Pelosi. And while Pelosi, who is 78, and Trump, who is 72, are peers, they are separated by a gulf of political experience.

"She has a vastly better sense of the political system than Mr. Trump", said Lawrence who worked as Pelosi's top aide from 2005 to 2011. "I think Mr. Trump — I have not worked with him — but those of us who follow politics pretty closely see in Mr. Trump somebody who fundamentally misunderstands the allocation of power in the American political system." Despite not having won the popular vote in the presidential election, added Lawrence, Trump appears to believe that he was "anointed to have much greater power than presidents have in the modern American government."

Trump's apparent belief in what has been called an imperial presidency first clashed with the new political reality of a divided government when Nancy Pelosi effectively postponed the president's traditional State of the Union address before Congress until the government shutdown is over. After initially vowing to give his address at a different location, the president quickly backed down and accepted Pelosi's postponement.

While the showdown between Trump and Pelosi, who as Speaker of the House of Representatives is a second line for the presidency after the vice president, over the largely ceremonial state of the union address has little practical consequences, it delivered a clear message to Trump that Pelosi is keenly aware of her constitutional powers — and is not afraid to use them vis-a-vis the president.
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