Donald Trump posted a lengthy message to Truth Social on Saturday morning in which he recalled his White House dinner with “Real Time” host Bill Maher. The president called the evening a “total waste of time” and said Maher is “no different” than his more liberal leaning late-night nemeses like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert.
“Sometimes in life you waste time,” Trump wrote. “T.V. Host Bill Maher asked to have dinner with me through one of his friends, also a friend of mine, and I agreed. He came into the famed Oval Office much different than I thought he would be. He was extremely nervous, had ZERO confidence in himself and, to soothe his nerves, immediately, within seconds, asked for a ‘Vodka Tonic.’ He said to me, ‘I’ve never felt like this before, I’m actually scared.’ In one respect, it was somewhat endearing! Anyway, we had a great dinner, it was quick, easy, and he seemed to be a nice guy and, for his first show after our dinner, he was very respectful about our meeting — But with everything I have done in bringing our Country back from ‘OBLIVION,’ why wouldn’t he be?”
Trump’s post seemed to be, in part, motivated by Maher, on Friday, making fun of the president’s claims that China will “terminate ALL Ice Hockey” in Canada if the two nations make a trade deal.
Trump added, “In any event, it was a total waste of time for me to have this jerk at the White House and last night, after explaining what a DISASTER Canadian ‘Leaders’ are to deal with, how Canada has ‘ripped off’ the United States for years on TRADE (But not anymore!), I jokingly stated in a TRUTH that, ‘The first thing China will do is terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada, and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup.’ Well, he went on and on about the Hockey statement, like ‘What kind of a person would say such a foolish thing as this,’ as though I were being serious when I said it.”
Trump then attacked Maher’s ratings and called him a “highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT.”
He concluded, “Fortunately, his Television Ratings are so low that nobody will learn about his various Fake News statements about me. He is no different than Kimmel, Fallon, or Colbert but, I must admit, slightly more talented! Anyway, Bill Maher is a highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT, and Republicans should stop using him to show how the Left is coming over our way — Our Base, the Greatest of All Time, laughs at your weakness when you do it! Maher asked me if he could come back to the White House again and, with his friend, also asked to come to the wonderful White House Christmas Party, but he didn’t. Regardless, I’d much rather spend my time MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN than wasting it on him.”
In April of 2025, Maher gave a much gentler account of his dinner with Trump. He said during an episode of “Real Time” that Trump was “gracious” and “much more self-aware than he lets on in public.”
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“The guy I met is not the guy who the night before the dinner shit-Tweeted a bunch of nasty crap about how this dinner was a bad idea and what a deranged asshole I was,” Maher said. “Just for starters: he laughs. I’ve never seen him laugh in public. But he does, including at himself. He’s not fake.”
From Variety US