It's clear that Donald Trump is not used to being thwarted, and he's really not used to being stood up to by a woman. He seems utterly baffled by and not a little terrified of Nancy Pelosi. His reticence to really take her on, to come up with the kind of vitriolic nastiness he shows to anyone else who challenges him is clear. That was shown again in his Sunday Face the Nation interview. Given the opportunity to lash out with his trademark braggadocio and name-calling, Trump was reserved.
Margaret Brennan eased him into the discussion, saying "You had quite the showdown with Speaker Pelosi," rather than "You were totally owned by Speaker Pelosi." Which was nice of her. Then she asked, "What did you learn about negotiating with her?" Trump's answer was downright subdued. "Well, I think that she was very rigid—which I would expect—but I think she is very bad for our country." That's the best he could do? "Bad for our country"? Then he launched into a confused diatribe about how she "knows that you need a barrier" and " knows that we need border security," but at the same time "basically she wants open borders" and "doesn't mind human trafficking."
Brennan pounced then, and rattled him. She pointed out that Pelosi "offered you over a billion dollars for border security," and he could only answer, "Excuse me?" She repeated the point and he still seemed slightly befuddled, taking a moment to figure out a rejoinder. He came back with, "She's—she's costing the country hundreds of billions of dollars" and a tangent about porous borders and how he's totally going to be willing to shut the government down again because now people understand how bad the border is, a fallacy we've already dispatched.
"You're still going to have to deal with her now," Brennan told him. He clearly doesn't want to think about that fact. "No," he said," she can keep playing her games, but we will win." Oh, Donald. You won't win. She's got your number.