--- title: Trump Congress Address: Nancy Pelosi Advises Democrats description: House Leader Nancy Pelosi has given instructions to her fellow Democrats for handling President Donald Trump's voters ahead of his speech canonical: https://time.com/4686341/trump-congress-address-nancy-pelosi/ author: Aric Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-01T02:20:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:35:16.890Z article:section: Politics og:title: Nancy Pelosi Says She Knows How Democrats Should Handle Trump Voters og:description: "It's like telling your friend the guy she's dating is a jerk" og:url: https://time.com/4686341/trump-congress-address-nancy-pelosi/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc21e6c089482ef44/6988bc7d7cdbacd146d574fb/nancy-pelosi-trunp.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-PELOSI-SCHUMER og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nancy Pelosi Says She Knows How Democrats Should Handle Trump Voters twitter:description: "It's like telling your friend the guy she's dating is a jerk" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc21e6c089482ef44/6988bc7d7cdbacd146d574fb/nancy-pelosi-trunp.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Nancy Pelosi Says She Knows How Democrats Should Handle Trump Voters by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Mar 1, 2017 2:20 AM UTC  House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks during a press conference with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer at the National Press Club on Feb. 27, 2017, a day ahead of US President Donald Trump's scheduled address to a joint session of Congress. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks during a press conference with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer at the National Press Club on Feb. 27, 2017, a day ahead of US President Donald Trump's scheduled address to a joint session of Congress.Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Mar 1, 2017 2:20 AM UTC House Minority Leader [Nancy Pelosi](http://time.com/4586318/nancy-pelosi-reelected-democratic-leader/) has given instructions to her fellow Democrats for handling [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4685416/seth-meyers-trump-congress-address/)‘s voters: treat them like a friend who has a “jerk” boyfriend. “The way I told my members: It’s like telling your friend the guy she’s dating is a jerk,” Pelosi told reporters during a briefing on Tuesday, [according to CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/politics/nancy-pelosi-democrats-donald-trump/index.html). “You can’t tell her that. She has to find out for herself. You can give her clues and then eventually one thing will lead to another, she’ll come to her conclusion. But if you tell her right up front, you’ll lose a friend. So we’re not interested in losing any friends. Let them find out. “They made a judgment and they’re not willing to walk away from their own judgment,” Pelosi added. Matt Gorman, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, took issue with Pelosi’s comments, saying: “Leave it to a San Francisco liberal to belittle and condescend to the 63 million voters who called for real change last November. Pelosi’s comments underscore just how hard it’ll be for this out-of-touch party to compete across the country in 2018.” Trump addressed Congress on Tuesday night. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4686341/trump-congress-address-nancy-pelosi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4686341/trump-congress-address-nancy-pelosi/"},"headline":"Nancy Pelosi Says She Knows How Democrats Should Handle Trump Voters","datePublished":"2017-03-01T02:20:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:35:16.890Z","description":"\"They made a judgment and they're not willing to walk away from their own judgment.\"","url":"https://time.com/4686341/trump-congress-address-nancy-pelosi/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc21e6c089482ef44/6988bc7d7cdbacd146d574fb/nancy-pelosi-trunp.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc21e6c089482ef44/6988bc7d7cdbacd146d574fb/nancy-pelosi-trunp.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-PELOSI-SCHUMER","caption":"US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-PELOSI-SCHUMER","creditText":"Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4686341/trump-congress-address-nancy-pelosi/","name":"Nancy Pelosi Says She Knows How Democrats Should Handle Trump Voters"}}]}] ```