Wednesday was an encouraging day for Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, who is facing a growing insurrection from Democratic representatives who are demanding the immediate impeachment of Donald Trump. At a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus, Pelosi secured support, at least for now, for her policy of allowing various existing congressional inquiries to proceed in the face of the Trump Administration’s stonewalling. Afterward, she told reporters, “We do believe that it’s important to follow the facts. We believe that no one is above the law . . . and we believe the President of the United States is engaged in a coverup.”

Shortly after that, Pelosi took a trip to the White House, where she and some colleagues had scheduled a meeting with Trump about infrastructure spending. It didn’t last long. According to an account from the Wall Street Journal, Trump complained to his guests that Speaker Pelosi had “said something terrible today” and announced that the talks were off. Then he stomped out to the Rose Garden, where he told the hastily assembled White House press corps that he would no longer coöperate with Democrats on infrastructure or anything else. “I don’t do coverups,” Trump fumed. “Get these phony investigations over with.”

A bit later, Pelosi held her own press conference, with Chuck Schumer and other Democrats who attended the White House meeting. After citing the successful infrastructure projects of two earlier Republican Presidents—Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt—and saying that she and her colleagues had been prepared to give Trump the opportunity to have his own “signature infrastructure initiative,” Pelosi declined to characterize what had happened at the White House beyond saying that the President “took a pass.” Then she concluded, “In any event, I pray for the President of the United States and I pray for the United States of America.”

It was a perfectly tuned sign-off. Anger seldom works against Trump; he owns the currency and can always issue more of it. In addressing the rogue President directly, or speaking about him in the third person, Pelosi usually adopts a tone that is more sorrowful than angry, while firmly reminding everyone—Trump included—that Congress is a coequal branch of government that won’t be run roughshod over. It is a measured strategy that worked during the lengthy standoff over Trump’s border-wall proposal. (The White House eventually capitulated.) And Pelosi has reasons to believe it is still working, despite the pressure she is facing.

According to the Washington Post, about twenty-five House Democrats have called for the opening of an impeachment inquiry. They and many other members of the majority caucus are understandably aggrieved at Trump’s refusal to respect the division of powers laid down in the Constitution. They are also reacting to the anger of many Democratic activists and supporters, who want to hold the President accountable for his obstruction of the Mueller probe, his racism, his corruption, his boorishness, and his assault on practically everything they hold dear.

Pelosi is thinking longer term. Her goal is to turf Trump out of office in November, 2020, and win a Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress. The key to doing this, she believes, is to replicate what the Democrats did during the 2018 midterms: adopt a broad-church approach that appeals to centrist and nonaligned voters and also confirmed Democrats, and avoid getting too far out in front of the American public. From Pelosi’s perspective, a rapid move to impeachment looks like more of a threat than an opportunity, and it’s not hard to see why she thinks this way.

In a telephone poll carried out over the past week, researchers at Monmouth University asked people, “Do you think President Trump should be impeached and compelled to leave the Presidency, or not?” Thirty-nine per cent of the respondents said yes; fifty-six per cent said no. The proportion supporting impeachment had fallen by three percentage points since the pollsters asked the same question in March.

Was this particular survey skewed to Trump supporters? It doesn’t seem like it. The Monmouth University pollsters also asked this question: “Looking ahead to the 2020 election for President, do you think that Donald Trump should be re-elected, or do you think that it is time to have someone else in office?” Sixty per cent of the respondents said it is time for another President.

It is possible that more Americans will come to support impeachment as they realize that Trump is raising his middle finger at the division of powers enshrined in the Constitution. Perhaps his refusal to allow testimony from his former aides, starting with Don McGahn, the former White House counsel, will have an impact. In the Monmouth University poll, a majority of respondents said that McGahn and Robert Mueller should appear before Congress. If Mueller does testify, what he says could be highly consequential.

Should public opinion move firmly in favor of impeachment, Pelosi would almost certainly move with it. Her objection is based on politics rather than principle. But, for now, she believes that the wisest course is to let the existing inquiries play out, while aggressively challenging the Administration’s stonewalling in the courts and amping up the messaging about Trump being engaged in a coverup.

At a meeting with some colleagues, on Monday night, Pelosi pointed to a court ruling issued earlier in the day; a federal judge had ruled that Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars U.S.A., had to turn over financial records to the House Oversight Committee and called the White House’s legal arguments “unfathomable.” On Wednesday afternoon, a federal judge in New York handed the Democrats a second victory by ruling that Deutsche Bank and Capital One should deliver Trump-related documents to the House committees on Financial Services and Intelligence. (Lawyers acting for the Trump family had challenged subpoenas issued by the two committees.) In what could be a lengthy legal battle, these were early signs of hope for the Democrats.

At Wednesday morning’s meeting of the entire Democratic caucus, Pelosi reiterated the arguments against going straight to impeachment, and a number of her senior colleagues, including Elijah Cummings, the head of the Oversight Committee, backed her up. No vote was taken, but the meeting “reflected where most of this caucus is at,” Dean Phillips, a freshman congressman from Minnesota, told the Washington Post. “Have faith in the courts and have faith in process, and impeachment only if absolutely necessary.” That is Pelosi’s position, of course. And, judging by what happened at the White House on Wednesday, it has Trump rattled.