President Donald Trump, for the second day in a row, offered reporters lunch while throwing in an insult during a public appearance.
Ahead of Trump’s closed-door meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Palm Beach home, he paused to take questions from the press before heading in. The free-flowing exchange led to Trump narrating who could stay, who could go, and what role food might play in the process.
The invitation came with a familiar edge, mixing humor, irritation, and control in equal measure.
“We’ll see you. We’re going to have a big meeting, and we’ll see you in a couple of hours, if you’d like. And if you’d like, you can come up and have lunch, like you did yesterday. Would you like that or not? Do you want that? Because some of them think it’s terrible — it’s a bribe,” Trump said on Monday, Dec. 29, before joking, “But, you know, a bribe for $25? I don’t know.”
He continued, “If you’d like, you can go, and if you don’t, you can stand in a driveway and melt.”
View on Threads
“All right. But if you want, will you work on that? Margo — is Margo doing a good job? She’s a star. She’s too nice,” he stated, extolling his special assistant and communications adviser Margo Martin. “Her only problem? She’s too nice to you, and you’re not nice to us.”
The comments mirrored remarks Trump made just a day earlier during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, when he also joked about feeding reporters while questioning how it might be perceived. The back-to-back appearances made the lunch offer feel less spontaneous and more like a running theme.
“President Trump is ‘bribing’ the fake news with lunch again!” one person posted on X, framing the exchange as part of Trump’s long-running friction with reporters.
lol
— I’m Not That Short (@SheBleedsHipHop) December 30, 2025
On Threads, the jokes leaned sharper, as one person asked, “Did they spit in the lunch for the media?” Another added, “He thinks because he can be bought with a compliment, the press can be bought with some rancid food.”
“Still thinks he on the apprentice show,” joked a fourth person.
A few pointed out that Trump and Netanyahu were “twinning” by both wearing navy blue suits and red ties around their necks. One person noted, “The way they are dressed alike. It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic. He is such a childish man.”
Another wrote, “Dressed like twins. Trump always wears the same suit. Netanyahu kissing up to Trump by imitating [him]. Why has no one mentioned it on the news media??”
Dressed like twins. Trump always wears the same suit. Netanyahu kissing up to Trump by imitating. Why has no one mentioned it on the news media?? https://t.co/ya95NX6RKr
— Amy Atwood (@AmyAtwood2) December 30, 2025
The online reaction highlighted how quickly Trump’s smallest gestures balloon into broader commentary. His relationship with the press has long been defined by tension, selective access, and public sparring. He has called journalists names and made enemies with those who dare to call him out.
Even moments framed as light or generous often circle back to complaints about fairness and tone from the “fake news.”
The timing of this invitation only reinforced that dynamic, signaling to people in the corps that he knows that was a headline-grabbing act that got many talking about him. Because of the remarks from the day before, the second lunch invitation felt like a premeditated action to distract people from the controversial politician he was meeting with.
By the time reporters were ushered away, the meeting itself had already taken a back seat. Online, the lunch became shorthand for Trump’s complicated dance with the press — an offer extended, questioned, and debated all at once.
