Internet took notice when Pelosi applauded Trump
The speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, stands behind President Donald Trump at his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, a vision in suffragist white, head tilted just so, lips pursed in a smirk and arms outreached.
Her hands come together in what one Twitter user called a “walrus clap,” but it resonated around the world.
In the image, captured by Doug Mills of The New York Times, and in other pool video footage, the internet saw acres of shade dispensed by a skilled politician firmly in control, and social media users immediately turned Pelosi’s wordless gesture into a viral meme.
Cross-party applause for the president on such a night is normally a pro forma affair, overlooked in the sea of stirring words penned by a speechwriter and recited from a teleprompter.
This time, the House speaker’s clapping almost stole the spotlight on an important night for a president seeking to deliver to millions of viewers his delayed speech — a speech she previously blocked.
Pelosi — a California Democrat, self-described “mother of five, grandmother of nine” and the first woman to take up the speaker’s gavel — was applauding a political sparring partner whom analysts have concluded she had roundly
outfoxed twice before.
Many called her gesture a “clap jeer.” Some called it a literal clap back. One Twitter user said it was the “read your tweets” clap, in reference to Trump’s penchant for weaponizing his Twitter feed. The comedian Patton Oswalt congratulated Pelosi for “inventing” an obscenity without using a certain finger.
Another went so far as to call it “the photo of the century.”
Some took offense at the clap, with one person tweeting: “Nancy Pelosi’s sarcastic clap is a consummate example of the biggest breakdown in American society: lack of respect. We don’t have to agree, but we should respect each other.” And another noted that if her gesture is now the official political clap back, “We Republicans can use it too.”
Some Twitter users saw echoes of a stern matriarch in Pelosi’s countenance. She stared at notes in front of her and appeared to roll her eyes and shake her head at some points.
But it was the speaker’s fleeting “bless your heart” expression as Trump looks back at her — as if for approval — with the clap that had the internet buzzing.
As one Twitter user wrote: “Holy hell that look. When your Mom looks at you like that, don’t walk. Run.”
Christine Pelosi, a political strategist and a daughter of the speaker, weighed in on Twitter: “Oh yes that clap took me back to the teen years. She knows. And she knows that you know. And frankly she’s disappointed that you thought this would work.”