Pelosi shakes her head at Trump's 'ridiculous' and 'really sick' impeachment rant


President Trump seems to have put a lot of effort into the six-page letter he sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday, a day before the House will vote to impeach him for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. "Trump worked on the letter for more than a week, revising drafts with policy adviser Stephen Miller and legislative affairs director Eric Ueland," The Washington Post reports, and he "did not want White House lawyers to review it until the final stages."
The Post characterizes the final product, released on White House stationary and frequently factually inaccurate, as "a rambling and rageful letter" in which Trump called the impeachment process "invalid," "spiteful," "egregious," "meritless," "terrible," "disingenuous," "baseless," "preposterous," "dangerous," "fake," "fantasy," and "illegal." Trump accused Pelosi, among other things, of fake praying. Pelosi told CNN she hadn't yet read the entire letter, as she'd been busy shepherding a $1.4 trillion spending package through the House, but from what she gathered, it's "ridiculous" and "really sick." (Watch at the 5-minute mark.)
CNN's Wolf Blitzer described Trump's impeachment venting as an "angry, rambling letter," CBS's Major Garrett said it "had the seething, ranting hallmarks of a long-form presidential tweet," and MSNBC's Chris Hayes called it "absolutely unhinged, deranged."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Juan Williams was the first one to bring up Trump's letter during Fox News The Five's discussion of how Republicans are winning impeachment, calling the letter "essentially a scream from a guilty man." Nobody agreed with him, and Greg Gutfeld told Williams he's acting like Trump's "own words, when they are loud or aggressive or funny, are somehow proof of guilt."
An anonymous White House official told Politico that despite what tone you might see in Trump's letter, the president isn't "frustrated" at being impeached. "Why would he be frustrated if there's not a single Republican that is going to vote for his impeachment? He won," the official argued. And as for his personal attacks on Pelosi, "he's trolling her now. ... We watched for a year and everybody said, 'Oh she's so powerful now, she's so brilliant.' Show me one power move that she's made. Show me one action that she prevailed on this year. I'm serious."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
The mounting tensions between Thailand and Cambodia
The Explainer Long-running border disputes are at a decade high, as protesters in Thailand demand the prime minister's resignation
-
The unravelling of 'trolls' paradise' Tattle Life
In the Spotlight Unmasking of founder sends shockwaves through toxic gossip forum
-
Codeword: June 30, 2025
The Week's daily codeword puzzle
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood funds
Speed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary
Speed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportations
Speed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from