Rachel Maddow Jokes Fellow MS NOW Host Stephanie Ruhle 'Took One for the Team' by Having Lunch With Donald Trump

MS NOW host Rachel Maddow jabbed her colleague Stephanie Ruhle, saying she “took one for the team” by lunching with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, February 24.

Ruhle wasn’t alone at the lunch, a traditional pre-State of the Union event attended by the president and members of the media, but the left-leaning network was an unlikely guest of a president who has consistently called it "fake news" for constantly fact-checking his fibs.

Maddow introduced her during the MS NOW’s pre-speech coverage when she revealed Ruhle's attendance at the luncheon.

“Our own Stephanie Ruhle took one for the team and had lunch at the White House today with a group of other TV anchors, and Stephanie joins us now to talk about that a little bit. Stephanie, I understand that Trump painted a very rosy picture for you today of what he wants to say tonight. Can you tell us anything about what he’s going to say and how it matches up with what is really happening?” Maddow asked.

“So I would say, Rachel, that my takeaway from today is that the president — or Trump 2.0 — is definitely living in a gilded bubble. I would say, even if you compare it to his first term, the president is now surrounded by an administration that says yes, yes, please, thank you, and yes again. He truly is living like a king in this White House,” Ruhle replied.

Ruhle is a frequent critic of the president, often focusing on his administration's economic policies, legal challenges, and handling of the truth.

“We know he personally and his family are making well over a billion dollars this term, and he’s living that way. He’s going to talk about the economy tonight, and he told us on the record that over the next three years, the United States, in his words, is going to see the greatest economy in our country’s history,” she said.

"Juxtapose that with what his polling is, with what consumer confidence is, and you can’t even compare the two. It’s as though his vantage point of the American people and the economy ends at the edge of the Mar-a-Lago property, because he spends his weekends there surrounded by very wealthy businesspeople. And when we asked him about the economy, he keeps pointing to the markets. He keeps pointing to your 401k,” she added.

Ruhle has stated the U.S. economy is currently slowing, noting recent data points to a lackluster performance despite administration claims of strength.

She emphasizes that "pocketbook issues" — such as the high cost of groceries, insurance, and schooling — remain the primary concern for voters, despite positive stock market performance.

“He keeps talking about, if you’re a homeowner, how much the value of your home has gone up. But think about the millions of Americans who are not invested in the markets, who do not have a job right now, who are concerned about AI, and who are actually living in America. When he talks about the economy, he always turns to gas prices, right? Gas prices is just one thing you’re paying for with your car — you still have to buy that car,” she concluded.