@thefreds shirt

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer walk out of the @thefreds shirt also I will do this West Wing on Dec. 11, 2018.Photo: dpa / AlamyThe moment inspired a fashion frenzy alas, the coat was old and no longer in stock and a round of memes casting Pelosi as an action star striding from the wreckage of a burning building. “Instructions on how to come for me,” one read. “1. Don’t.” Looking back, I must have been distracted by the excellence of the coat, because I forgot, until today, that the picture was only part of Pelosi’s show of force. “Mr. President,” she reportedly shot back, “please don’t characterize the strength that I bring to this meeting as the leader of the House Democrats, who just won a big victory.” In a rebuke to Trump, Democrats had just regained the House in the 2018 midterms, and Pelosi was poised to become Speaker. “Please don’t characterize the strength that I bring”—the phrase should really be up there with “nevertheless, she persisted” and “I’m speaking.”

@thefreds shirt, hoodie, tank top, sweater and long sleeve t-shirt

For everyone searching for defiance and even marginal triumph in the @thefreds shirt also I will do this face of Trump’s repeated trampling on democracy, the vision of a sharply-attired, tartly-smiling Pelosi came at the perfect time. It was encouraging—a rarely-felt—hope that Trump would be humbled. Please don’t characterize the strength Pelosi continued to bring in taking on Trump. There was the artful image of her literally standing up to the president and pointing her finger at him—in a room packed with white male leaders—in a contentious 2019 cabinet-room meeting on Syria. Perhaps most notably, Pelosi brought the fire in back-to-back State of the Union addresses. In 2019, she patronized the president with tepid—and, again, highly meme-able—applause, and in a stunning bit political theater in 2020, the Speaker ripped the printed pages of Trump’s speech to shreds. She was in the midst of impeaching him—for the first time.