HOUSEWIFE WHO BECAME DONALD’S NEMESIS
TRUMP tormentor Nancy Pelosi’s long association with politics began when she was a child.
The only daughter of an Italian-American congressman and mayor of Baltimore, she managed her father’s book of people who owed him political favours.
Her long road to becoming the most powerful woman in US politics saw her attend her first Democrat convention in 1952, aged 12.
By 20 she was meeting fellow Catholic John F Kennedy at his inaugural address as president.
A mother-of-five by the time she was 30, she stayed at home to raise
her children while her banker husband Paul went out to work. But during the day she started a Democratic Party club at her home and by 1976 was working on the presidential campaign for the California governor.
Within a decade she was so respected within the party that she was persuaded to run for office by a Californian congresswoman who was dying of cancer. A seven-week blitz saw her throw 100 house parties, recruit 4,000 volunteers and raise a million dollars to secure victory.
Mrs Pelosi, 79, campaigned on gay rights and AIDS when both were unpopular issues.
Elected Speaker of the House in 2006, she was the first woman in history to hold the position and used her first 100 hours to raise the minimum wage and end tax subsidies for oil companies.
Since Mr Trump came to power in 2017, she has been a constant thorn in his side, keeping her poise as he often loses his. Elaine S Povich, veteran Washington journalist and author of her biography said of Mrs Pelosi: ‘It’s not productive to get mad, she believes, but it is productive to get even.
‘Pelosi projects power and authority calculatedly, because power is the key to her ability to lead. When she was a child, her mother thought it might be nice if she became a nun. But Pelosi laughingly suggested she would like it better if she could become a priest, since they had all the power.’