Rep. Nancy Pelosi has sat back and watched the current presidential campaigns with some jaded bemusement, but if we go back to October she was on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore declaring that Donald Trump would never be President, and insisting "he knows that." Welllll, fast forward nine months and he sure sounds like he thinks he'll be President, and this isn't a man who lacks for ego and arrogance. Staying true to her party, though, Pelosi reiterated some of that feeling this week for a group of eighth graders at a San Francisco middle school, and as the Chronicle reports, she remains confident that Hillary Clinton can beat Trump.

The main focus of her visit to the classroom, shortly before these kids' middle school graduation, was to answer questions about gun control and talk about a yearlong civics project they worked on that involved collecting a 1,000-signature petition calling for various gun control legislation — which they presented to Pelosi — and producing a newspaper on the topic.

But of course Pelosi's most pointed language came when they asked her about Trump.

“It’s hard to know what he stands for because he’ll say, ‘Well, this is what I’m saying now, but when I become the nominee, when I become president, I’ll maybe change my mind about things,’” she said, adding she has no doubt Hillary Clinton will defeat him. ...

“My view on him is he knows he shouldn’t be president,” she said. “It’s like every day he is saying, ‘Save me from myself.’ Like saying there’s no drought in California.”

She paused to shake her head. “He’s smart,” she continued. “He knows better than anyone he shouldn’t be president.”

This conversation all happened Tuesday at the San Francisco’s Children’s Day School in the Mission, but it echoes Pelosi's earlier idea that Trump somehow isn't running for real.

In October she said, "It will never happen... He will never be President. And he knows that. I think this is about book sales and lecture fees."

As The Washington Post reports today, Pelosi is similarly confident about the Democrats gaining seats in the House and potentially retaking control of the chamber. With other Democrats in the House calling Trump a great recruitment tool for their party, Pelosi asserted, "We would win [if the election were held today]. We would pick up more than the 20 [seats predicted], we could get to the 30. But it’s not today."

The Democrats currently have a 30-seat deficit, and so far predictions have them potentially gaining only 19 seats in contested districts nationwide in November.

Would the House Minority Leader want the Speaker chair back again, though? Three years ago she said no, saying, "I did that." But it's been over four years since the majority flipped, and something tells me she wouldn't mind one more go-round before retirement, with Hillary (or Trump) as President.

Previously: Nancy Pelosi Doesn't Care About Obama's Mom Jeans, Says Trump 'Will Never Be President'
Pelosi Never Wants To Be Speaker Again