Back to the Real Salt Lake Newsfeed

At White House meeting, insults fly and tempers flare

Washington • You know a White House meeting has gone off the rails when the president of the United States and the speaker of the House cannot agree over the precise insult one called the other.

According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Donald Trump called her a “third-grade” politician during a combative meeting with congressional leaders of both parties on Wednesday about the worsening situation in northern Syria. White House officials and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate minority leader, said Trump actually called Pelosi “third-rate.”

At one particularly tense moment, Pelosi informed the president that “all roads with you lead to Putin,” referring to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.