President Trump weighed in on the Nancy Pelosi hair salon flap on Saturday – raising doubts about the House speaker’s ability to negotiate with foreign adversaries if she had trouble with a small business owner.
The president also took a swipe at Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the same message.
“Nancy Pelosi said she got ‘set up’ by the owner (a very good one) of a beauty parlor,” the president wrote.
“If so, how will she do in negotiations against President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia, or Kim Jong Un of North Korea. Not so well I suspect, but far better than Joe Hiden’ would do!”
Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, has been the target of nearly a week of criticism and wisecracks since being caught on video, maskless amid the coronavirus pandemic, at ESalonSF – despite limits on hairstyling businesses imposed because of the outbreak.
On Wednesday, Pelosi asserted she had been “set up” by the salon – and claimed she deserved an apology for the backlash and ridicule she endured after the video went viral.
Salon owner Erica Kious, meanwhile, criticized Pelosi, accusing the speaker of feeling entitled to privileges not available to the general public, which has been dealing with shutdowns of various businesses and services for the better part of six months.
“It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can’t work,” Kious told Fox News, adding that she “can’t believe” the speaker didn’t have a mask on. (From the footage, it appears Pelosi had some kind of covering around her neck.)
“We’re supposed to look up to this woman, right?” Kious said. “It is just disturbing.”
In a previous tweet Thursday, President Trump suggested that perhaps Kious should try to replace “Crazy Nancy” in Congress, where the 80-year-old Democrat has served since 1987.
On Friday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed told local station KGO-TV that the salon matter had perhaps run its course and it was time to "move on."
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this story.