Nancy Pelosi has won the title of the most powerful woman in American politics who is strategically determined to crush the rebellion in her Democratic Party quietly, but will need to be wooed by counterbalancing President Donald Trump.
Nancy Pelosi, 78, was elected Thursday afternoon as speaker of the House of Representatives, the first woman in US history to take office between 2007 and 2010.
As she takes office from outgoing President Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi will become the third person in power hierarchy in the country after the president and vice president.
Her duties will begin with Donald Trump´s first challenge by Thursday afternoon´s vote on provisional budget laws that, if signed by the president, could resume work in US administrations that have been suspended because of a partial "closure" since 22 December.
It is now about knowing who will surrender first in the confrontation between Donald Trump and the "President of the Council" whose supporters do not doubt its outcome.
"No one has ever won when he bet on Nancy Pelosi, she can take off your head without even feeling yourself bleeding," her daughter Alexandra told CNN on Wednesday.
But this will not be the first encounter between Trump and Pelosi. During his campaign, the Republican candidate made her a "scarecrow" used to condemn Democratic politicians and talk about political problems in Washington.
Other conservatives condemn the "insolence" of this woman married to a businessman millionaire.
The past few months have seen internal problems, with dozens of Democratic lawmakers and candidates announcing their desire to make a change at the summit - including Tim Ryan, a Ohio congressman who fought Pelosi for the leadership of the Democrats after the 2016 election but failed.
A progressive young woman has denied her authority and has gone so far as to say she will not elect her as Speaker of the House.
But Pelosi eventually managed to convince a sufficient number of critics by agreeing to set her term and distribute a number of positions of responsibility.
In her first term, Pelosi represented a major opposition force to Republican George W. Bush in the last two years of his presidency. Its oversight role on Trump will be similar.
They and the Democratic leadership will have the power to block laws passed by Republicans and disrupt much of Trump´s agenda from proposals to cut a new tax to build a wall along the border with Mexico.
Pelosi can make things harder for Trump if he launches measures to isolate him.
So far, she has expressed opposition to using this big stick against him, saying it could lead to the mobilization of Republican voters to protect the president.
In her new role, she will sometimes have to stand up to Trump if necessary, but also work with him to pass laws if possible.
"A democratic Congress will work for the solutions of our community, because we are all fed up with divisions," Pelosi said after her party´s majority vote in the House of Representatives. "The American people want peace, they want results."
Pelosi is arguably the most sophisticated of the political leaders of her generation. And led the health care bill put forward by former President Barack Obama in the Council until his historic breakthrough in 2010.
This may be the reason why many people were considered a nuisance after eight years.
"Can you imagine Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House of Representatives?" Trump asked a crowd at a rally in Minnesota last month. "Do not do this to me, I can not imagine it, not you."
Pelosi has been under attack from the right for years. Conservatives were portraying the millionaire investment wife from California as the embodiment of the left-wing elite.
In all, she is accused of seeking to raise taxes on middle-income families to support the influx of illegal immigrants.
Pelosi has represented for three decades Congress´s 12th constituency of California, including San Francisco, the stronghold of left-wing politics, culture and gay rights, which many conservatives see as moral degeneration.
Nancy Patricia D´Alessandro was born in Baltimore in a family of politicians with Italian roots. Both her father and brother were chiefs of the coastal city of East Coast.
After studying political science in Washington, she and her husband moved to San Francisco with five children.
Elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1987, she made her way to become the Democratic leader of the House as of 2002, a position she still holds.
Pelosi, fueled by innumerable political conflicts, has largely preserved the party´s unity.
She once said that US policy requires wearing a "shield" and the ability to "receive punches."
