President launches Twitter tirade after Democratic leaders exited meeting they say devolved into insults

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Donald Trump’s clash with Democratic lawmakers reached new heights when top Democrats walked out of a White House meeting and House speaker Nancy Pelosi pitied the president for having a “meltdown”.

Pelosi and other top Democrats say they walked out of the contentious White House briefing on Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria after it devolved into an insult-fest and it became clear the president had no plan to deal with a potential revival of Isis in the Middle East.

The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, told reporters Trump had called Pelosi a “third-rate politician”. He said the meeting “was not a dialogue, this was sort of a diatribe, a nasty diatribe not focused on the facts”.

Trump’s bizarre, threatening letter to Erdoğan: ‘Don’t be a fool’ Read more

Pelosi said: “I pray for the president all the time … I think now we have to pray for his health – this was a very serious meltdown on the part of the president.”

She added Democrats “couldn’t continue in the meeting because he was just not relating to the reality of it”.

Republicans pushed back, arguing it was Pelosi who’d been the problem. “She storms out of another meeting, trying to make it unproductive,” said the House GOP leader, Kevin McCarthy.

The White House spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, called Pelosi’s action “baffling but not surprising”.

Trump himself pushed back in a series of tweets, calling Pelosi “Nervous Nancy” and the Democrats the “Do Nothing Democrats”.

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) The Do Nothing Democrats, Pelosi and Schumer stormed out of the Cabinet Room! pic.twitter.com/hmP4FNhemv

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Do you think they like me? pic.twitter.com/TDmUnJ8HtF

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Nervous Nancy's unhinged meltdown! pic.twitter.com/RDeUI7sfe7

(Pelosi later made one of the photos her Twitter cover photo.)

Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) Thanks for the new cover photo @realDonaldTrump! pic.twitter.com/bUatLr5S7D

The move came on the same day the US House, which is bitterly divided over the impeachment inquiry, nonetheless banded together to overwhelmingly support a resolution condemning the president’s Syria policy by a vote of 354-60.

Turkey launched an offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria two days after Trump suddenly announced he was withdrawing forces from the area. Trump declared on Wednesday that the US had no stake in defending the Kurdish fighters, who died by the thousands as America’s partners against Isis extremists.

Condemnation of Trump’s stance on Turkey, Syria and the Kurds was quick and severe during the day, and Pelosi said Trump appeared visibly “shaken up” after nearly two-thirds of the House GOP caucus voted in support of the resolution.

The non-binding resolution states Congress’s opposition to the troop pullback and says Turkey should cease its military action in Syria. The measure also says the White House should present a plan for an “enduring defeat” of the Islamic State; many worry that Isis will resurge as Turkish forces attack Syrian Kurds who are holding the extremists.

The Syria briefing marked the first face-to-face interaction between Trump and Pelosi since the House speaker formally launched an impeachment inquiry against the president last month.

Trump himself has stalked out of his White House meetings in the past, including with congressional leaders in May, when he said he would no longer work with Democrats unless they dropped all Russia investigations, and last January during the partial government shutdown.

In public appearances on Wednesday, Trump said he was fulfilling a campaign pledge to bring US troops home from “endless wars” in the Middle East – casting aside criticism that a sudden US withdrawal from Syria betrays the Kurdish fighters, stains US credibility around the world, and opens an important region to Russia, which is moving in.

“We have a situation where Turkey is taking land from Syria. Syria’s not happy about it. Let them work it out,” Trump said. “They have a problem at a border. It’s not our border. We shouldn’t be losing lives over it.”

Details of the contentious encounter continued to emerge throughout Wednesday evening. Trump was said to have kicked off the meeting by bragging about his “nasty” letter to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to a Democrat familiar with the meeting who was granted anonymity by the Associated Press to discuss it.

Pelosi mentioned the House vote and Schumer began to read the president a quote from the former defense secretary James Mattis on the need to keep US troops in Syria to prevent a resurgent of Islamic State fighters.

But Trump cut Schumer off, complaining that Mattis was “the world’s most overrated general. You know why? He wasn’t tough enough.” Trump went on: “I captured Isis.”

Pelosi explained to Trump that Russia has always wanted a “foothold in the Middle East”, and now it now had one with the US withdrawal, according to a senior Democratic aide who was also granted anonymity.

“All roads with you lead to Putin,” the speaker said.

Then things escalated.

Trump said to Pelosi: “I hate Isis more than you do.” Pelosi responded, “You don’t know that.”

Schumer intervened at one point and said: “Is your plan to rely on the Syrians and the Turks?”

Trump replied: “Our plan is to keep the American people safe.”

Pelosi said: “That’s not a plan. That’s a goal.”

Trump turned to Pelosi and complained about Barack Obama’s “red line” over Syria. According to Schumer, he then called her “a third-rate politician”.

At that point, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the House majority leader, interjected: “This is not useful.”

Pelosi and Hoyer stood and left the meeting. As they did, Trump said: “Goodbye, we’ll see you at the polls.”