House

Pelosi reportedly told Trump deputy: ‘What was your name, dear?’

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reportedly asked a White House deputy to remind her of his name when he addressed her in a budget negotiation meeting earlier this year.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that after acting White House budget director Russell Vought spoke up during a meeting in May, Pelosi turned to him and asked, “What was your name again, dear?”

The Post, which cited a person who witnessed the exchange for its report, noted that the remark was symptomatic of a larger fraying of the relationship between the Democratic leader and the White House.

President Trump went after Pelosi during a Fox News interview in France last month, calling her a “nasty, vindictive, horrible person” and a “disgrace.” The Democratic leader later remarked, “I’m done with him.”

The White House and Pelosi’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill on Thursday.{mosads}

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has taken the lead in spending negotiations with Pelosi, as she has dismissed acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, saying he has “no credibility” on budget and spending issues.

Ahead of a Tuesday phone call with Mnuchin, Pelosi told reporters that she increasingly viewed meeting with White House officials as pointless.

Spending and budget issues are increasingly front and center in talks between the House and the White House as both Congress’s August recess and the deadline to increase the federal debt ceiling approach.

Pelosi has called for any deal to raise the ceiling to be part of a two-year budget agreement, which members of Senate Republican leadership also favor, but the prospects of reaching such a deal by early September, when the White House says an increase will be necessary, remain uncertain.

“I don’t see any reason to have a meeting. They know where we are. We’ve met, we’ve met, we’ve met,” she told reporters.

Tags Budget Negotiations debt ceiling Donald Trump Mick Mulvaney Nancy Pelosi Steven Mnuchin

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