Pelosi bashes Trump's 'mental incapacity' during address to the nation

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Pelosi accuses Trump of 'mental incapacity' to be president

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said President Donald Trump showed his "mental incapacity" during his address to the nation last week.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said President Donald Trump's speech last week to the nation was proof of his "mental incapacity" during a new interview with ABC News.

"I didn't even think about his speech, but I did see some of it in the news afterward, and I think it was a demonstration of his mental incapacity," Pelosi told ABC's Jonathan Karl in a clip that aired Sunday on "This Week."

She said she didn't even watch the address, adding she'd "had enough" of the president.

Asked to elaborate by Karl, Pelosi said, "Well, that was a ridiculous speech. Of course, we were all offended because of what he said about Rob Reiner… and Michele just a few days before, after the tragedy. Something's wrong there, and something's wrong with the people around him that they don't stop him from his ridiculousness."

Then-Speaker Pelosi rips up President Trump's State of The Union speech in 2020. (Getty)

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During the remarks, Trump said he'd brought the nation back from "the brink of ruin" in less than a year back in office, attacked Democrats and touted that he'd made America the "hottest country" in the world. Unsurprisingly, reaction to the politically charged speech largely depended on partisan divides, as Trump battles poor polling about the nation's economic outlook.

"Nasty Nancy Pelosi is unhinged and lashing out because she realizes that she will only be remembered for ripping off the American people and enriching her family through corrupt stock trading. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Nancy," White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Fox News Digital.

Pelosi's remarks about Trump's mental capacity come on the heels of her role in 2024 in pushing President Joe Biden off the Democratic ticket, which has led to a rift between the two longtime political allies. 

However, before Biden's dismal debate against Trump last June that prompted the pressure campaign to get him out of the race, Pelosi was one of the most public-facing voices defending his mental acuity.

President Donald Trump during a prime-time address to the nation in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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According to a book by Chris Whipple, Pelosi privately told a friend that Biden had a lost a step last year, but she bashed a Wall Street Journal report about Biden's decline behind the scenes.

Earlier that year, she'd called Biden "very sharp" and "always on the ball."

Shortly after Biden's issues were exposed in his debate with Trump, Pelosi's remarks on "Morning Joe" that essentially ignored his defiant stance that he was staying in the race signaled that she'd lost faith. He ultimately dropped out of the contest, but the bitter rift between Pelosi and Biden remains; they haven't spoken since.

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She has always insisted that she didn't push him to drop out but simply to give him polling numbers that gave him a clear picture of the uphill battle he faced.