Trump and Pelosi Exchange Snubs at the State of the Union Address

Well, that didn’t take long.

One of the most anticipated moments of the State of the Union address on Tuesday was the interaction between President Trump and the woman who had led the drive to impeach him: Speaker Nancy Pelosi. They had not seen each other since October, when Ms. Pelosi abruptly left a White House meeting after lecturing a scowling Mr. Trump.

The mutual snubbing began the moment Mr. Trump walked into the House chamber.

When Mr. Trump stepped up to the rostrum and handed her a copy of his speech, Ms. Pelosi rose and extended her hand to shake his. Mr. Trump turned his back, and the speaker quickly withdrew her hand, appearing to shrug slightly and raise her eyebrows as if to say, “Well, I tried.”

Then Ms. Pelosi dealt Mr. Trump a slight of her own by omitting the customary laudatory words in her introduction of the president. Normally, she would have said, “I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the United States.” Instead, she said simply, “Members of Congress, the president of the United States.”

As Mr. Trump read his speech from the teleprompter, Ms. Pelosi, dressed in white — the color of the suffragists, worn by many of the Democratic women in the chamber — could be seen behind him, paging through his speech. Practiced at maintaining a stone face (she served as speaker alongside another Republican president, George W. Bush), she kept her lips pursed and her eyes down, mostly remaining seated as Republicans rose to give Mr. Trump one standing ovation after another.

But when Mr. Trump made mention of the First Step Act, the bipartisan legislation that overhauled criminal justice reforms, Ms. Pelosi clapped and rose to her feet.

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