Exclusive: Nancy Pelosi Lashes Out at 'Grotesque' Donald Trump—'Cannot Win'

Nancy Pelosi is past pulling punches for former President Donald Trump.

“He’s grotesque,” the House speaker emerita told Newsweek in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in southern Germany on Saturday.

The annual event sees leaders and lawmakers from around the world gather in Germany for three days of “diplomatic speed dating,” as attendees often jokingly refer to them. The summit has for decades been a fixture for world leaders, senior government officials, and all manner of politicos.

This year’s iteration has been shrouded in anxiety. Trump’s recent denigration of NATO’s bedrock principles, frustration at the stalling of the Ukraine aid bill in Congress, and sadness over the untimely death of Russian political prisoner and veteran anti-President Vladimir Putin campaigner Alexei Navalny have all hung heavy over the gathering.

Trump talk has been constant—much to Pelosi’s frustration.

“I think we spend too much time on him,” she said during an interview in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof suite transformed into the weekend hub for the large U.S. delegation dispatched to Germany.

The group—which included Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Pelosi, and numerous representatives and senators of both parties—arrived intending to reassure American allies unsettled by partisan division in Washington D.C. and the looming prospect of a second Trump presidency.

“I’ll say to you what I say to them: it’s not going to happen,” Pelosi said.

In response to Pelosi’s remarks, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Newsweek in an emailed statement: “Does Nancy Pelosi know where she is half the time?”

“Under President Trump there was peace and prosperity. Under Crooked Joe Biden and Democrats, there has been more misery, destruction, and chaos as they have become the biggest threat to democracy in American history.”

Trump vs. Biden

The November presidential election is almost certain to be a repeat of the 2020 contest, pitting an ever-more aggrieved Trump against incumbent President Joe Biden. “We have to win that election,” Pelosi said, echoing the White House framing of the race as a battle for the survival of American democracy.

“It cannot be considered an option,” the veteran California congresswoman added of a Trump return, describing the 45th president with whom she has had repeated high-profile run-ins as “despicable.”

Trump has brushed off a litany of personal scandals, two impeachments, and 91 felony charges on his path to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Various polls put Trump close to the Biden in voter support, his challenge buoyed by concerns over the incumbent’s age of 81.

“I’m very proud of Joe Biden,” Pelosi said, having this week defended the president as “very sharp” and “always on the ball.”

Regardless, it appears Biden is in for a fight in November. “Democracy is on the ballot,” Pelosi said, echoing appeals from Biden and his allies for voters to turn out in historic numbers, as they did in 2020. According to the Pew Research Center, 62.8% of Americans of voting age cast their ballots in that election.

Americans, she added, should pay attention to “his coziness with Putin, his disrespect for the greatest force for freedom in NATO—for all these years after World War II—and of course the personal ‘kitchen table’ freedoms like a woman’s right to choose the size and timing of your family; that’s an economic issue at the kitchen table.”

“Other freedom issues that are under assault from him as well,” Pelosi said, noting in particular the pressures from the right on LGBTQ+ communities. Democrats, she added, want to “address the ‘kitchen table’ issues” and convince Americans “that there’s a place for them in the economy of the future.” The feeling to the contrary, she said, is what Trump “preyed upon before.”

American influence at Munich has been strong throughout the event’s 60 years, but the 2024 iteration has been dominated by the presidential election campaign and Congress’ continued failure to pass a new Ukraine funding package.

“It’s awkward to even talk about the election, except for the fear that people have that a grotesque person could be president of the United States,” Pelosi said, “a person who takes pride in depriving women of their reproductive health choices, a person who toadies up to Putin, praises the president of China, chums up to [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un. I mean, really, what happened?”

Supporters of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden are pictured in front of the Alto Lee Adams Sr. U.S. Courthouse on February 12, 2024 in Fort Pierce, Florida. The November race is likely to be a re-run of the fierce 2020 contest. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

For all his rhetorical bombast, Trump’s first term NATO track record included increased defense spending across the alliance, the commitment of troops to Poland, and the provision of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. Several Republican lawmakers in Munich this weekend noted that under Trump, Russia did not make the territory grabs it did under President Barack Obama or Biden.

Some allies are hoping that a second Trump term will mean similar bite accompanying the inevitable bark.

“I don’t know what bite they are talking about,” Pelosi said. “I think a bit more of a bite of a poisonous snake, and I think it’s very horrible.”

Putin vs. Navalny

The death in a Russian Arctic penal colony of unofficial opposition leader Navalny cast a pall over Munich. On Friday, his wife Yulia Navalnya gave an unplanned address in which she urged the international community to unite and revitalize their efforts to defeat Putin.

“I want Putin, his entire entourage, Putin’s friends, his government to know that they will bear responsibility for what they did to our country, to my family, to my husband,” Navalnya said. “And this day will come very soon.”

Many in Munich interpreted the timing of Navalny’s death as intentional; a message to Moscow’s Western adversaries that Putin’s grip on and commitment to power is unassailable.

“He, the evil Putin, has chosen the Munich Security Conference time to do it,” Pelosi said. “I think it’s going to have a galvanizing influence on really showing how evil he is. He’s a very, very evil man.”

Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin by email to request comment.

Condemnation of Moscow was quick and plentiful, but it remains unclear whether the U.S. and its NATO and EU allies will respond with practical measures. Asked if Navalny’s death would galvanize the deadlocked Congress, Pelosi said: “I would certainly hope so.”

“We have to find a path, because we must come up with that money,” she continued. “If we, the United States of America, decide that we’re going to pull our punch in terms of the fight for democracy in Ukraine, well, that’s unthinkable.”

A person places a photo of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at a memorial outside the Russian Consulate on February 16, 2024 in New York City. Russian authorities announced the pro-democracy campaigner’s death on Friday. John Lamparski/Getty Images

“We must decide that Russia will lose, make every decision in favor of their losing. We see that here, at this conference that I’ve been going to for a long time, there’s an understanding of what this is going to take: moneywise, person-powerwise.”

“People say that Putin will have more troops soon than he had at the beginning of the war. And why? Money. So, all the more reason to make sure the sanctions are honored. Because otherwise, people who are casual about the sanctions are funding this war.”

“This is the moment,” Pelosi said, “the time when we met the challenge to rules-based governance, respect for boundaries and respect for sovereignty.”

As to America’s NATO allies, Pelosi feels a new steel. “I see a level of strength on their part,” she said. “They are wondering, of course, about when we’re going to put up the money. They are concerned about statements that have been made about NATO by he who shall remain nameless, but they’re not whining about it.”

“They’re looking for paths to get things done and understanding that Putin must lose this. How he does, decisions have to be made. But I really am, more than ever, encouraged by how they’re making decisions to win this.”

Related Articles

Start your unlimited Newsweek trial