House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday said she speaks to U.S. presidents on an “as-needed” basis amid reports that she and President Trump haven’t spoken extensively in months.

“I’ve always spoken to presidents on an as-needed basis,” Mrs. Pelosi said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It’s an historic occasion when the speaker and the president speak - it’s history.”

Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin and White House legislative affairs director Eric Ueland were the main point people for the administration in the negotiating over the $2.2 trillion economic rescue package Mr. Trump signed last week.

Mrs. Pelosi said she respects such an arrangement.

She also pointed out that she attended Mr. Trump’s State of the Union address, after which she ripped up a copy of his speech.

“If it’s necessary, I’m sure we will speak,” she said. “I don’t know what I would learn in a conversation with the president. We speak to each other right now, and that’s what he really hears, what people say publicly much more than what you might say in a call.”

“I think that those should be public anyway so everybody knows what actually happened in the conversation,” she said.

Mr. Trump confirmed that he was watching Mrs. Pelosi’s TV appearance.

“I watched a portion of low rated (very) Morning Psycho (Joe) this Morning in order to see what Nancy Pelosi had to say, & what moves she was planning to further hurt our Country,” the president said on Twitter. “Actually, other than her usual complaining that I’m a terrible person, she wasn’t bad. Still praying!”

Mr. Trump has questioned the sincerity of Mrs. Pelosi’s oft-used line that she’s praying for him and for the country.

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