About

Nancy Pelosi is an American politician representing California's 12th district in the House of Representatives. Since 2019 she has served as Speaker of the House of Representatives, a position she also held between 2007 to 2011. She has been in leadership positions in Congress for two decades, serving as Minority Leader from 2003-2007 and 2011-2019 when Democrats were in the minority in the chamber. Pelosi is the first and only female Speaker of the House.

History

Nancy Pelosi is the daughter of Thomas d'Alessandro, former Maryland congressman and Mayor of Baltimore (a position which her brother later held). Her own political career began in 1976 in California, with her election as a member of the Democratic National Committee. In 1987, Pelosi was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing a deep blue district in San Francisco.^[1]

Throughout her political career, Pelosi has been a notably effective fundraiser for the Democratic Party. Under Pelosi's leadership, Democrats in Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the bailout of the financial industry.

Meme Formats

Pelosi has featured in many widely-circulated memes during her time in the public spotlight.

Nancy Pelosi Clapping

At the 2019 State of the Union Address, Nancy Pelosi appeared to offer a sarcastic round of applause to Donald Trump after the President called on Americans to "reject the politics of revenge, resistance, and retribution, and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise, and the common good."

The moment was quickly noticed by Twitter users. Left-leaning Twitter users cheered the apparent attitude behind Pelosi's applause. Other Twitter users photoshopped Pelosi clapping into other moments.

Nancy Pelosi Ripping Paper

At the 2020 State of the Union Address, Nancy Pelosi ripped the copy of Donald Trump's speech given to her in half at the conclusion of his remarks. Posters online turned the image into an object-labeling meme format. For example, @desusnice (seen below) earned over 9,000 likes for a post labeling the photo with text.^[10]

Nancy Pelosi's Ice Cream Fridge

On April 24, 2020, Nancy Pelosi appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden and during her interview participated in a segment called "Show & Tell" in which Corden encourages guests to share something from their home. Pelosi shared chocolate candy and ice cream, opening her freezer to show it stocked with various ice cream products. The video received more than 410,000 views, 9,500 dislikes and 1,900 likes in less than two weeks (shown below).^[3]

Many pointed out the contrast between the very expensive ice cream and refrigerator in Pelosi's house, and the dire economic situation faced by many Americans at the peak of the pandemic-related lockdown measures. Donald Trump's campaign manager Brad Pascale tweeted about the video, accusing the Speaker of hypocrisy.

Americans are losing their jobs since the virus rocked the economy.Nancy Pelosi blocks funding for people to keep getting paychecks.But she’s got a $24K fridge full of ice cream, so she’s cool.“𝑳𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎.”- 𝑵𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝑨𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆 pic.twitter.com/6KDurMFJDD

— Brad Parscale – Download our Trump 2020 App today! (@parscale) April 20, 2020

Nancy Pelosi Trades

Users on TikTok and other social media platforms in 2021 began joking about tracking and following Nancy Pelosi's investments in the stock market, speculating that she was investing with more knowledge and influence over the markets than the majority of other investors.^[4] In response to this speculation, Pelosi reiterated her support for politicians participating in the stock market.

Role In the 2024 Election

During the tumultuous events of the 2024 Presidential Election on the Democratic side, Nancy Pelosi's role behind the scenes was rumored to be pivotal. Reporting suggested that she had been central to the effort to convince Joe Biden to drop out, threatening to cut off funds from the campaign and coordinating expressions of disapproval from other high-ranking Democrats.^[5]

Pelosi was also rumored to be heavily involved in the selection of Tim Walz as the vice presidential pick of the Kamala Harris campaign.^[6] Her influential role in these two events made her the subject of many memes in the hours and days after Walz's selection on August 6th, 2024.

For example, on August 5th, X / Twitter user @RileyTX posted an apology form meme themed around Pelosi, earning over 8,000 likes in just over a day (seen below).^[7]

The poster formerly known as JUNIPER shared a meme about Pelosi as well on August 2nd, 2024, amid press speculation about the Speaker Emerita's role in the vice presidential selection process, earning over 18,000 likes in four days.^[8]

Following the Walz pick, others online joked that Pelosi should be permitted to continue her insider trading as a recompense for her service to the party. On August 5th, X user @ZackBornstein earned 22,000 likes over the course of a day for posting about this (seen below).^[9]

Search Interest

External References