A frustrated Donald Trump reportedly threw briefing papers across the White House floor following his chaotic televised meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
The US president repeatedly clashed with the Democratic congressional leaders on Tuesday over his desire for additional billions in border wall funding.
Ms Pelosi and Mr Schumer were widely considered to have bested Mr Trump after the 72-year-old was goaded into admitting he would be “proud” to partially shut down the government if congress refuses to approve $5bn in border wall funding.
Following the dispute, Mr Trump “stormed out” of the Oval Office, and, holding a folder of briefing papers, “scattered them out of frustration – threw them across the room”, according to the LA Times’ White House reporter Eli Stokols.
Mr Trump felt Mr Schumer “got the better of him”, Mr Stokols told MSNBC, citing sources within the White House.
Such public scenes of disagreement in the Oval Office have rarely been seen by the US public. When Ms Pelosi appeared to protest about the in-front-of-the-cameras nature of the spat, Mr Trump said: “It’s called transparency.”
Ms Pelosi, the House minority speaker, later reportedly questioned the president’s “manhood” in a private meeting with Democrat colleagues.
She said Mr Trump “must have said the word ‘wall’ 30 times”, according to Politico, before adding: “I was trying to be the mom. But it goes to show you – you get into a tinkle contest with a skunk, you get tinkle all over you.
“It’s like a manhood thing with him – as if manhood can be associated with him. This wall thing.”
