Donald Trump falls for Nancy Pelosi's trap

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/24/politics/donald-trump-nancy-pelosi-democrats-republicans/index.html

President Donald Trump keeps taking Nancy Pelosi's bait.

The House speaker has spent the last two days provoking Trump, questioning his self-confidence, condescendingly confiding that she prays for him and suggesting a "family intervention."

The President's wild, improvised response Thursday suggests that so far, the speaker is winning the hugely consequential clash between Washington's top two political forces.

It's not often that Trump, the man who dismembered the most talented Republican primary field in years in 2016, seems to be struggling for traction in a face-to-face political fight.

But Pelosi is turning Trump's own arsenal against him, using the politics of mockery and provocation to leave him for once, off balance and forced to respond to a more nimble rival.

And Trump's increasingly livid reactions are helping Pelosi out of a delicate political spot.

This week opened with the Beltway narrative that she was under growing pressure from a Democratic caucus impatient with her reluctance to open an impeachment inquiry against Trump.