In ripping up president Trump’s State of the Union speech, House speaker Nancy Pelosi made a powerful PR move that highlighted the position of Congress as the first branch of the government, a role derived from Article I of the Constitution.

Trump has run roughshod over Congress, ignoring its requests for a slew of information and a raft of subpoenas. His imperial presidency led to Trump's impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice.

Pelosi’s PR message following the SOTU: Congress is reasserting its power.

The only downside of Pelosi's brilliant paper-shredding PR exercise was that it diverted attention from the content of Trump's speech, which was loaded with doozies.

The Washington Post fact-checkers found the SOTU “chock-full of stretched facts and dubious figures.”

It analyzed 31 statements. Let’s look at two energy whoppers.

The president credited his “bold regulatory reduction campaign” for making the US “the No. 1 producer of oil and natural gas in the world, by far.”

The Post reported that the US has led the world in natural gas production since 2009 and emerged as the No. 1 oil producer in 2013. In other words: “The energy revolution he takes credit for began under Obama,” noted the Post.

The twitter-in-chief also boasted that his Administration has made the US energy independent.

Not so fast.

WaPo reported that the US imported 9.9M barrels of oil per day in 2018 from nearly 90 countries. Canada accounted for 43 percent of the amount, while the Persian Gulf countries accounted for 16 percent.

Comedian Bill Maher dubbed Pelosi “the Iron Lady of the Left.” The speaker believes Democrats win with a disciplined and focused message and “cold-blooded work.”

The San Francisco Democrat was pretty cold-blooded after the SOTU. She hardly looked like the childish “Nervous Nancy” insult that Trump uses in his attempt to denigrate the speaker.

Trump is no match for Pelosi.