Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said America’s founders anticipated the rise of “a rogue president” but not “a rogue Senate,” in an interview with USA Today’s Susan Page, where she defended her record and again accused former President Donald Trump of “cruelty and corruption.”
“I’m really not here to talk about the incoherence, the cruelty, the corruption of the current president of the United States,” Pelosi said, brushing aside questions about Trump’s renewed political dominance.
Pelosi, 85, who announced she will retire from Congress at the end of her term in January 2027, told USA Today her proudest legislative accomplishment was passing the Affordable Care Act, while her greatest disappointment was failing to enact gun control laws.
She also revisited the Trump impeachments she oversaw, saying both were justified and grounded in constitutional duty.
“The person most responsible for impeaching President Trump when I was speaker was President Trump. He gave us no choice,” Pelosi said. “If he crosses the border again. But that’s not an incidental thing. There has to be cause. There has to be reason. We had review. This was a very serious, historic thing.”
Pelosi argued that the framers of the Constitution anticipated executive overreach — but failed to foresee a complicit upper chamber.
“Our founders knew that there could be a rogue president, and that’s why they put impeachment in the Constitution,” she said. “They didn’t know there’d be a rogue president at the same time a rogue Senate that didn’t have the courage to do the right thing. It was bipartisan in the Senate, but it wasn’t enough.”
When asked if Democrats should consider impeaching Trump again should they regain control of the House, Pelosi stopped short of endorsing such a move but left the door open.
“There has to be cause,” she said, adding that the constitutional standard must always be met.
She went on to accuse Trump of “inciting an insurrection” on January 6, 2021 — a claim repeatedly disputed by Trump and his allies — and criticized his use of presidential pardon powers.
Trump’s supporters have countered that his pardons fall well within presidential authority and that he was the first president to call for National Guard deployment to protect the Capitol before the 2021 unrest.
Pelosi’s remarks about “rogue government” drew attention not only for their expediency, but also for what many saw as deflection from growing scrutiny over her own financial record.
A recent New York Post investigation revealed that Pelosi and her husband, venture capitalist Paul Pelosi, made more than $130 million in stock profits during her 37 years in Congress — a return of roughly 16,930%, outpacing every major stock index and even the performance of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway over the same period.
Before entering Congress in 1987, the Pelosis reported between $610,000 and $785,000 in stock holdings. Today, their estimated net worth now exceeds $280 million, alongside luxury properties in San Francisco and Napa Valley valued at millions more.
Financial disclosures show frequent, high-return options trading in stocks closely tied to industries affected by congressional action — including semiconductor legislation and federal infrastructure investments. Critics, including Republicans and government ethics watchdogs, have long accused Pelosi of benefiting from insider knowledge.
“Nancy Pelosi’s true legacy is becoming the most successful insider trader in American history,” said Kiersten Pels, spokesperson for the Republican National Committee. “If anyone else had turned $785,000 into $133.7 million with better returns than Warren Buffett, they’d be retiring behind bars.”
Despite her defense of constitutional principles in the Trump era, Pelosi’s critics argue that her rhetoric about “rogue presidents” and “rogue Senates” rings hollow when juxtaposed with her own financial entanglements and partisan record.
“She’s projecting,” said one senior GOP aide. “Every time Pelosi accuses someone else of abusing power, it’s because she’s worried people will start asking how she made her fortune while running Congress.”