Video of Bill Maher Revealing Details of His Dinner With Trump Goes Viral

Comedian and television host Bill Maher revealed on Friday the details of his recent dinner with President Donald Trump in an attempt to emphasize the need for civil discourse rather than "hurling insults from 3,000 miles away."

Newsweek reached out by email on Saturday morning, outside of normal business hours, to Maher and Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) for comment.

Why It Matters

Maher, host of HBO's weekly talk show Real Time With Bill Maher, has often spoken out against Trump over the years, making him the butt of jokes. Trump, in return, has often lambasted Maher, calling him "overrated" and "ratings challenged." Just before the dinner took place, Trump posted on Truth Social that Maher has been "unjustifiably critical of anything or anyone TRUMP."

Last month, Maher compared extreme adulation for Trump by his die-hard supporters to that of North Koreans praising their leader Kim Jong-Un. Maher also said that in a hypothetical rematch election between Trump and former President Joe Biden, he would "vote for Biden's head in a jar of blue liquid versus Donald Trump."

The comedian has also been critical of "woke" progressives, describing himself as an "old-school liberal." He has repeatedly raised concerns about the left and what he and many others describe as "cancel culture." He touts dialogue between political factions as important and maintains friendships with prominent conservatives, who he also features on his show.

What To Know

Maher and Trump met after musician Kid Rock, a mutual friend, arranged the dinner.

Trump, in his lengthy Truth Social post ahead of the dinner, said he agreed to the dinner as a "favor for a friend." Maher said he did not pursue the dinner as a form of political reconciliation, but rather because "there's got to be something better than hurling insults from 3000 miles away."

The video in which the comedian spoke about his dinner with the president, which was posted to X, formerly Twitter, had been reposted over 11,000 times with over 4 million views by noon on Saturday.

"What I'm going to do is report exactly what happened," Maher said at the start of his monologue in this week's episode. "You decide what you think about it, and if that's not enough, pure Trump hate for you, I don't give a f***."

The comedian's opening was a nod to progressive critics, who have slammed his White House meeting with Trump. Maher routinely sparks outrage from some progressives for his willingness to engage with conservatives, and his criticism of some left-wing positions.

Maher revealed he found Trump to be "gracious and measured," finding it strange that he "isn't that in other setting." As an example of this unexpected good humor, Maher showed off a list of 60 insults Trump had said about him, which he had brought to the dinner and had Trump sign.

"Stupid, dummy, low life, sleaze bag, sick, sad, stoned, cold, crazy, a dumb guy," Maher rattled off from the list before turning it around to show Trump's signature, adding that the president did it "with good humor," quipping that he expected anything nice he said about Trump to cause "millions of liberal sphincters" to tighten."

Maher sprinkled jabs at Trump throughout his account of the evening, such as quipping that he wasn't going to "dress like [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky" in reference to the Ukrainian leader's ill-fated visit to the White House.

He also revealed that he joked about the high-profile lawsuit Trump filed against him in 2013 when Maher parodied Trump's birther claims about former President Barack Obama by claiming the real estate mogul's father was an ape and offered to make a $5 million donation if he could prove he wasn't half ape. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed without prejudice just eight weeks later.

"He said to Dana White, 'You know, Bill said my father was an orangutan, and I really love my father,'" Maher said, adding that he retorted, "Well, Mr. President, I did that because I didn't like what you were doing regarding Obama's birth origins. I thought that was low."

"No anger, just a little smile, as if to say, 'Yea, I get it,'" Maher said.

He explained later: "The most surreal part of the whole night was when I got home, I flew back right after the dinner, and I'm in bed watching 60 Minutes from the night before, and there's Trump in one of their stories, standing at a podium in a room that looked to me like one of the rooms and places we'd just been in and he's ranting—"Disgusting. You're a terrible person"—and I'm like, 'Who's that guy? What happened to Glinda, the good witch? And why can't we get the guy I met to be the public guy?'"

"I'm not saying it's our responsibility to do that," Maher added. "It's not I'm just reporting exactly what I saw."

"A crazy person doesn't live in the White House—a person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there, which I know is f***ed up," he said. "It's just not as f***ed up as I thought it was, and I have no illusions now that I'm back to work at my job, that he might start a new list."

Concluding his monologue, Maher again pushed back against progressive criticism.

"OK, that's my report. You can hate me for it, but I'm not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured, and why he isn't that in other settings, I don't know. And I can't answer, and it's not my place to answer. I'm just telling you what I saw, and I wasn't high," he said.

Later in the show, Maher sparred with panelist Josh Rogin, a columnist at The Washington Post, as Rogin critiqued the comedian's dinner with Trump.

"Not everybody has to like it," Maher shot back. "That's what we said, there were people who didn't want it to happen at all. You sound like one of them."

"What is the alternative to not talking?" the comedian asked. "Just sit at your lunch table and don't talk to anybody?"

Rogin responded by saying the dinner was a "PR stunt" for Trump and that Maher had been used as a "prop."

What People Are Saying

Former GOP Illinois Representative Joe Walsh wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "Oh [Bill Maher], you think much too highly of yourself to think anyone would 'hate' you for having dinner with Trump. But you do sound super naive."

He added: "So Trump, the man who lies as he breathes, the man who tried to overthrow an American election, the man who purposely spreads cruelty & division to win, the man who is throwing innocent people in an El Salvador prison, the man who is siding with Putin, the man who is expelling people bcuz of their beliefs, the man who thinks he's a dictator, the man who is ordering the justice dept to go after his political enemies, the man who is trying to tear down our democracy & the rule of law...that man is sort of 'gracious & measured' in private? Really Bill? Screw that. With everything Trump is doing PUBLICLY to this country I love, I don't give a damn what he's like in PRIVATE. Shame on you Bill. All you did was normalize him. Maybe that's good for your ratings, but it's bad for the country."

Collin Rugg, co-owner of conservative commentary site Trending Politics, wrote on X: "Bill Maher says he was completely wrong about Trump, says he felt way more comfortable with Trump than he would have with Clinton or Obama. The reflection after 8 years of railing on the president comes after Maher visited the White House."

U.S. ambassador to Israel and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee wrote on X: "This is so good! What [Bill Maher] saw in [Donald Trump] is what most of us who know & love POTUS see when we are with him. Listen & learn!"

Far-right political activist Laura Loomer wrote on X: "So sick of Bill Maher Simps. Conservatives are so desperate to be friends with people who hate them. All I know is I had a productive week in Cali, which included my deposition of Bill Maher. It's all on video and transcribed. You won't see me kissing his ass."

Kyle Kulinski, a progressive political commentator and podcast host, wrote on X: "Bill Maher, like Rogan, is so washed and going out sad."

What Happens Next?

Real Time With Bill Maher airs on HBO on Fridays at 10 p.m. ET, with a second airing on CNN on Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET.

Update 4/13/25 at 10:03 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.