Historical myths say that Lucrezia Borgia was a seductive poisoner who carried a hollow ring filled with venom, hosted orgiastic banquets, and eliminated lovers and rivals at will—an archetypal 16th-century Renaissance “femme fatale.”

As Duchess of Ferrara, Lucrezia exercised a lot of agency: she managed a sophisticated court, patronized artists and poets, governed in her husband’s absence, and earned contemporaries’ respect for her administrative skill.

Like Lucrezia, Nancy Pelosi possessed a plethora of political skills and dexterity.

While there is no evidence that the 85-year-old Pelosi ever poisoned anybody, there is little doubt that she was adept at neutralizing or eliminating her enemies using nonlethal, but politically toxic tactics.

She could be overtly demonstrative in her enmity to political opponents. Who can forget the image of Pelosi ripping up Donald Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address while seated behind him on the House rostrum?

“You don’t cross Nancy,” was the familiar mantra that reverberated throughout the House when Pelosi was the Democratic Speaker.

Those who dared to cross Pelosi found themselves on the outside looking in when it came to their political careers.

Now that Pelosi has announced she is retiring from active politics at the end of her term in January 2027, you could almost hear a sigh of relief whoosh through the House chamber. The murmur was especially audible from the leftist members of the Democratic caucus, such as the “Squad,” whom Pelosi adroitly kept in line via the use of committee appointments, whip counts, and member-to-member pressure.

Rather than personally confront those who got out of line (AOC and Rashida Talib come to mind), Pelosi used trusted lieutenants and caucus chairs to manage disputes privately, warning that public breaks would weaken Democrats and strengthen the GOP—a message that resonated given her reputation for delivering on party priorities.

Pelosi’s influence flowed from agenda control, vote discipline, and negotiated concessions backed by credible threats to withhold floor time or committee support.

Not very Lucrezia Borgia-like, but exceedingly effective.

While the powerful socialist wing of the Democratic Party may be quietly toasting Pelosi’s departure, Republicans are exuberant that she is leaving the political stage.

Take President Trump, for example.

“The retirement of Nancy Pelosi is a great thing for America…she did the country a great service by retiring,” Trump told reporters. “She’s an evil woman…evil, corrupt, and only focused on bad things for our country. She was rapidly losing control of her party. I’m very honored she impeached me twice and failed miserably twice. She is a highly overrated politician.”

Some of Trump’s GOP colleagues might disagree.

Pelosi has been a political hornet, constantly attacking and irritating her Republican opponents. Her most significant political victories against Republicans have spanned legislation, elections, and institutional showdowns over the course of four decades.

For example:

• Pelosi secured the speakership twice and reclaimed the House from the GOP: She first became the first woman Speaker in 2007, then engineered the 2018 midterm wave that flipped the House and returned her to the gavel in 2019, a rare feat in modern politics.
• She orchestrated Trump-era checks: As Speaker, she led the House to impeach President Trump twice (2019 and 2021), crystallizing Democratic opposition and forcing Senate Republicans to publicly acquit, which boxed in GOP messaging and defined the Trump presidency’s historic stain.
• She blocked Trump’s wall funding. During the 2018–2019 standoff, Pelosi refused to fund the border wall amid what was, until this year, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, denying Republicans a central policy demand and compelling the reopening without concessions on the wall.
• Despite GOP attacks and some Democratic skeptics, she assembled the votes to retake the gavel in 2019 through deal‑making and limits on her tenure, neutralizing a favorite Republican line of attack and stabilizing the caucus.
• As Speaker (2007–2011), Pelosi muscled through cornerstone Democratic laws—most notably the Affordable Care Act and Dodd‑Frank—despite unified GOP opposition, establishing frameworks Republicans couldn’t repeal even with later control.

Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene even offered rare praise for Pelosi’s effectiveness, saying she “got things done” for her party. She then wished that GOP leaders could deliver with similar discipline, while reiterating her support for term limits and urging quicker exits from Washington.

“The old guard has been repudiated, and the radicals are taking over the Democratic Party,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson. “We have evidence of that every day. Yesterday, [Democrat] Jared Golden announced he would not be running for reelection in the state of Maine. He’s a moderate. And he has no place in his party anymore. Even the famous San Francisco liberal (Pelosi) is not far left enough for the neo-Marxists.

“We commend her for her service and accomplishments,” Johnson added grudgingly.

Republicans are less effusive about Pelosi’s accumulation of wealth during her 40 years in Congress. While she pushed forward numerous policies on women’s rights, health care, and civil rights, her and her family’s net worth have also risen significantly during her political career.

According to Quiver Quantitative, a data platform that tracks and analyzes U.S. lawmakers’ stock trades and insider trading, Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, a venture capitalist, have an estimated net worth of more than $230 million today. It was about $23 million in 2008.

As Speaker of the House, Pelosi earned $223,500 yearly and brought in $174,000 annually when she was a regular member of Congress.

How did she turn those annual salaries into $230 million? The answer, say critics, is by making stock trades based on privileged or insider information.

“The Pelosis’ 2024 portfolio returned 54%–more than double the market’s 25% and crushing every major hedge fund,” Michael Ryan, a finance expert and the founder of MichaelRyanMoney.com, told Newsweek Magazine recently. “Paul Pelosi exercised Nvidia call options at $12 per share when the market price was 10 times higher, netting nearly $5 million. They sold Microsoft before an FTC antitrust probe. They dumped Visa before a DOJ monopoly lawsuit.

“This is the John Kerry ketchup fortune scenario, except Pelosi sits on committees that regulate the exact companies her husband trades,” Ryan continued. “When you have access to classified briefings and regulatory power, buying Tesla before Biden announces EV mandates raises questions.”

Some of the Pelosi family’s top stocks in their portfolio have been Apple, Microsoft, Salesforce, Google, and Amazon, all of which have contributed between $5 million and $25 million in value in recent years

Pelosi has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, calling the insider-trading accusation “ridiculous,” and adding that she supports banning members of Congress from trading stocks. She also insists that she does not trade stocks herself and has “no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement” in her husband, Paul Pelosi’s, transactions.

You bet, Nancy. And I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you.

Pelosi’s critics point out that there are clear patterns and suspicious timing in Paul Pelosi’s trades that have drawn scrutiny and media criticism—such as selling Visa shares months before a DOJ lawsuit and past trades in Nvidia ahead of a critical vote on computer chips.

Commentators and news outlets highlighting Pelosi’s robust stock returns and outsized portfolio performance argue that the optics are troubling. While these criticisms fall short of presenting verified evidence of criminal conduct, critics argue that Pelosi’s investment activities don’t pass the smell test.

Of course, Pelosi is not alone in that regard. The Center for Responsive Politics/OpenSecrets recently reported that half or more of current members of Congress are millionaires, based on their disclosed net worth.

Lucrezia Borgia would be impressed.

It’s not so much that Pelosi and other members of Congress got rich gorging themselves at the public trough, but that they are all getting away with it.

Who says public service doesn’t pay?

Here’s a little secret. Apparently, the first step to becoming a millionaire in America is to win an election. Just ask Lucrezia Pelosi.

–30–

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