Nancy Pelosi responded with aplomb when asked how she dealt with Donald Trump’s insults, declaring: “I’m done with him. I don’t even want to talk about it.”

After the president launched a series of attacks on the Democratic House speaker, calling her everything from “disgusting” to “a disgrace to herself”, Ms Pelosi said she would rather not spend her time taking about him.

“I’m done with him,” she said, appearing at an event in Washington DC on fiscal policy, hosted by the Peter Peterson Foundation and first reported by The Hill.

She added: “My stock goes up every time he attacks me, so what can I say. But let’s not spend too much time on that because that’s his victory, the diverter-in-chief, the diverter-of-attention-in-chief.”

Mr Trump launched the attacks against Ms Pelosi, the most powerful Democrat, during a trip to Normandy, France, to mark the 75th anniversary of D Day. By tradition, US politicians avoid matters of domestic policy – and especially personal attacks – while on overseas trips.

Ms Pelosi said she intended to continue that tradition, even if the president did not. She said the president sought to distract from his own behaviour on issues such as trade.

She added: “What bothers me more is that we’re talking about that instead of how to reduce the national debt.”

Ms Pelosi was also asked whether it was true she had told fellow Democrats she wanted to see the president in jail.

Ms Pelosi replied: “When we have conversations in our caucus they stay in our caucus. Do people think there’s some impeachable offences that the president committed? Yes. How serious are they? Are they criminal? Many people think they are.”

She said the possibility of impeaching Mr Trump remained on the table but doubted that House Democrats would pursue that route imminently.

“It’s not even close in our caucus…why are we even speculating on hypotheticals.”