Stephanie Ruhle Reveals What Trump Told Her Right After He Answered Longshot Phone Call From Her

MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle unexpectedly interviewed President Donald Trump on Friday, after scores of unsuccessful attempts – and during the call, Trump told her why.

Ruhle, who hosts The 11th Hour, appeared on Friday’s edition of All In, where she said both she and Trump seemed to be caught off guard by the fact that he answered her call for an interview. The exchange lasted about 15 minutes and centered on Trump’s war on Iran.

Ruhle explained that Trump told her that he should not be answering her call because she has been “very mean” to him:

When the president saw me call, I was just as surprised as he was that he answered. So, we’re 20 days into this war, and like so many other reporters, I have called the president every single day to no avail. And every other day except today, I have called him from my home office with my notes so I’m ready to go, hoping he’s going to speak to me.

And every day, he never picks up. And I hear about an interview, interview, doesn’t pick up for me. This morning I was in the back of an Uber with my child sitting next to me on the way to an airport, and I thought, I’m gonna leave him one more message. Maybe I can get him on the phone this afternoon. And lo and behold, it’s 9:30 in the morning. I’m in the back of a Honda Pilot with a 12-year-old next to me.

And the president says, “Hello, Stephanie? I shouldn’t even be answering. You know, you’re very mean to me. You’re very hard on me.” And I’m like, this can’t be happening. But alas, for the next 15 minutes, we got into it.

Ruhle went on to explain that Trump insisted to her that “Iran was two weeks away from having a nuclear bomb.”

“And according to the president, they had definitive plans to use it,” she continued. “There is no evidence that we have heard this from absolutely anyone. But this is his argument. This is why we had to do it. And for him, it’s funny because over the course of the conversation, when I asked about a regime change, did he expect or want to have influence over who would be the next ruler? He kept saying, ‘Well, that’s important, but not as important as them not having nuclear power, and we obliterated their nuclear power.'”

Ruhle added, “He talks as though we, he, has already won the war.”

All In host Chris Hayes responded by noting Trump’s familiar language.

“We should also note that ‘obliterate‘ is exactly the word that was used in June,” he said, referring to U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last year.

Elsewhere in her discussion with Trump, Ruhle said the president seemed to have “expressed more trust in [Russian President Vladimir] Putin than he does any of our European allies.”

Watch above via MS NOW.

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