Sen. Dianne Feinstein may be San Francisco’s favorite politician, but she quickly learned Tuesday evening that even a wildly popular ex-mayor can get into trouble if she tries to say something nice about President Trump.

Feinstein received a standing ovation from the 850 people at the sold-out Herbst Theater when she walked onto the stage for an hour-long “conversation” with former East Bay Rep. Ellen Tauscher. But near the end of the political lovefest, the senator shocked the crowd when she declined to say that Trump should be impeached, and warned the audience that they should expect to deal with the developer-turned politician for all four years of his term.

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“The question is whether he can learn and change,” Feinstein told the crowd at the Commonwealth Club event. “If so, I believe he can be a good president.”

That sort of talk is never heard in Democratic circles, where California Congress members already are talking about what they see as the need to impeach Trump or remove him from office via the 25th Amendment.