Donald Trump just made a huge mistake with Nancy Pelosi

It’s been a few days since the Republican Senate made clear that it would corruptly acquit Donald Trump in his sham impeachment trial without even calling a single witness. Trump has spent that time acting not like someone who is gearing up to try to win in 2020, but instead like a bitter loser who fears what might go wrong for him next.

Heading into his State of the Union address tonight, Donald Trump’s smart move would have been to simply try to act like a President. After all, he has to win over new supporters before November if he wants any chance of winning. But Trump blew that opportunity immediately.

After stepping up to the podium, Donald Trump exchanged some papers with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Then she reached out to shake his hand, but he ignored her and turned away. Oops.

Trump’s team may end up arguing that Trump simply didn’t see Pelosi’s attempt at shaking hands with him. But that won’t resonate, and instead one of the prevailing narratives coming out of the SOTU will be that Trump made the very un-Presidential move of snubbing the Speaker.

This is the last thing Donald Trump needed right now. Sure, his deranged base will love it. But his base isn’t nearly large enough to get him reelected on its own. Trump needed to use tonight to win over people who don’t like him all that much but don’t hate him. Instead he acted like a dick, and it’ll drown out any attempts he might make in his speech at broadening his support.