The Brief: At the end of Donald Trump's 2020 State of the Union address, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped a copy of his speech in half, an act which was immediately met with strong reactions and memes.
DEEP DIVE
During the 2019 State of the Union address, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi inspired the Pelosi Clap meme, which became recognized as a subtly sassy way to show disrespect. In the midst of Trump’s impeachment, at the end of the 2020 SOTU, Nancy Pelosi appears to have ripped a copy of the president’s speech in half, thus creating Pelosi rip memes.
Pelosi’s symbolic act has been met with praise, criticism, and of course the spawning of a hot new meme format.
.@SpeakerPelosi: Let's never do this again. https://t.co/nVq2paZVin pic.twitter.com/bJJzbwb2f0
— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) February 5, 2020
I just asked Speaker Pelosi her reaction to the #SOTU speech.
“I tore it up,” she said.
Why?
“It was the courteous thing to do,” she said. https://t.co/b5rVil4ply
— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) February 5, 2020
Nancy Pelosi is the saltiest, pettiest bitch I’ve ever seen.
— Blaire White (@MsBlaireWhite) February 5, 2020
Will Nancy Pelosi have a BabyNut character arc? Probably Not.
in one week nancy pelosi will be reborn as an infant peanut
— 𝘋𝘈𝘙𝘊𝘐𝘌 𝘞𝘐𝘓𝘋𝘌𝘙 (@333333333433333) February 5, 2020
God Bless Nancy Pelosi.pic.twitter.com/pNyTflGplv#SOTU
— Aaron Blitzstein (@BlitznBeans) February 5, 2020
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 5, 2020
pelosi should have thrown the pieces of the speech up in the air, lebron style
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) February 5, 2020
After spending 45 minutes applauding his worst policies, Pelosi does a thing. https://t.co/fi5614TKFl
— One of the Beths (@BethLynch2020) February 5, 2020
.@SpeakerPelosi ripped Trump's #SOTU2020 a new one.
BRAVO 👏👏👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/rvfLJrHVHj
— Peter Morley (@morethanmySLE) February 5, 2020
The Pelosi speech rip was a cheapshot after the bell and just came across like a sore loser
She still doesn't understand the game in this style of politics
Trump is still the people's champ and there is not a dang thing she can do about it
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) February 5, 2020
i didn't realize how fucking great that speech was until Pelosi ripped it up.
— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) February 5, 2020