--- title: Donald Trump Skips Nancy Pelosi's Handshake at SOTU description: President Donald Trump appeared to reject House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s handshake during the 2020 State of the Union. canonical: https://time.com/5777999/nancy-pelosi-handshake-trump/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-02-05T02:58:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T19:41:04.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Seemingly Rejects Pelosi's Handshake Attempt og:description: Trump sees handshakes as a major symbol og:url: https://time.com/5777999/nancy-pelosi-handshake-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a2fa971b790facd/698a09ca457a524aa6d637f5/State-of-the-Union-Pelosi-Trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Donald Trump and Nancy Pelosi og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Seemingly Rejects Pelosi's Handshake Attempt twitter:description: Trump sees handshakes as a major symbol twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a2fa971b790facd/698a09ca457a524aa6d637f5/State-of-the-Union-Pelosi-Trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Seemingly Rejects Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Handshake Attempt > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Updated: Dec 12, 2023 7:41 PM UTCPublished: Feb 5, 2020 2:58 AM UTC  US President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address flanked by US Vice President Mike Pence (L) and Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (R) at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Feb. 4, 2020. US President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address flanked by US Vice President Mike Pence (L) and Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (R) at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Feb. 4, 2020.Mandel Ngan—AFP/Getty Images  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Updated: Dec 12, 2023 7:41 PM UTCPublished: Feb 5, 2020 2:58 AM UTC President Donald Trump appeared to reject House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s handshake as he took his place at the podium to deliver his State of the Union speech Tuesday evening. As Trump handed Vice President Mike Pence and Pelosi folders with what seemed to be copies of his speech, Pelosi extended her hand, and the President abruptly turned away. Pelosi shrugged. “Democrats will never stop extending the hand of friendship to get the job done for the people,” Pelosi later tweeted. > [](https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1224907608982802433) The two leaders have long had a difficult relationship, but this snub could be a sign of how much things have soured. President Trump shook Pelosi’s hand during the 2019 State of the Union — but that was before Pelosi spearheaded the effort to impeach Trump in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. Handshakes have long been a major symbol for Trump. Observers have often pointed out that Trump has an unusual approach to [shaking hands](https://time.com/5325922/donald-trump-handshakes-showdown/), with some saying that he often employs the gesture to express his dominance. Moments after the snub, Pelosi offered her own slight. Although it’s custom for the Speaker to introduce the President by saying, “Members of Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the President of the United States,” she instead said only, “Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5777999/nancy-pelosi-handshake-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5777999/nancy-pelosi-handshake-trump/"},"headline":"President Trump Seemingly Rejects Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Handshake Attempt","datePublished":"2020-02-05T02:58:35.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T19:41:04.000Z","description":"Trump sees handshakes as a major symbol","url":"https://time.com/5777999/nancy-pelosi-handshake-trump/","keywords":["Congress","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a2fa971b790facd/698a09ca457a524aa6d637f5/State-of-the-Union-Pelosi-Trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara Law","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-law/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a2fa971b790facd/698a09ca457a524aa6d637f5/State-of-the-Union-Pelosi-Trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump and Nancy Pelosi","caption":"US-POLITICS-TRUMP-SOTU","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/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5777999/nancy-pelosi-handshake-trump/","name":"President Trump Seemingly Rejects Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Handshake Attempt"}}]}] ```