WASHINGTON — It was Nancy Pelosi’s first big showdown as House speaker, but in the tense staring match over border wall funding with President Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed master dealmaker blinked first — and was left licking his wounds as his adversary won plaudits for a resounding victory.

Just a few short weeks after facing a challenge to her presumed leadership of the House Democrats, the 78-year-old San Francisco congresswoman has emerged as a shrewd tactician and a talismanic “Iron Lady” for newly emboldened progressives.

Trump brought a temporary end Friday to the longest government shutdown in US history, dropping his insistence on immediate funding for wall construction along the Mexican border.

The announcement marked a significant climbdown by the president, suspending a row that paralyzed Washington, disrupted air travel and left more than 800,000 federal employees without pay for five weeks.

The Democrats were not required to yield a single inch, and the retreat was described as an “unmitigated victory” for Pelosi by the Washington Post, leaving little doubt of her powers as an adept political brawler.

The 78-year-old San Francisco congresswoman has emerged as a shrewd tactician and a talismanic “Iron Lady” for newly emboldened progressives.

Over the weekend, administration officials and conservative politicians from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney hit the cable news shows to cast Pelosi as an obstructionist on border security while Trump was the reasonable negotiator.

The consensus among observers with no skin in the game, however, appeared to be that Pelosi had “sent (Trump) to bed without dinner,” as Republican strategist and MSNBC political analyst Susan Del Percio put it.

“’She Wields the Knife’: Pelosi Moves to Belittle and Undercut Trump in Shutdown Fight,” read a headline in the Post, while CNN analyst Gloria Borger described Pelosi simply as a “badass.”