ANALYSIS
Trump cuts ties with Bill Maher: From the White House dinner to 'complete, total loser'
Trump reacted after Friday's episode of "Real Time," in which the comedian defended having dinner with the president again, but also mocked his poll numbers, his statements and Republican candidates.
President Donald Trump ended his brief truce with Bill Maher on Sunday with a post of more than 1,300 words on Truth Social, in which he called the HBO host a "complete, total loser," reproached him for mocking him after two dinners at the White House, and ordered him never to call again.
The attack comes just days after Trump described his second meeting with Maher, held in mid-October alongside musician Kid Rock and sports commentator Stephen A. Smith, as a "great." At the time, the president went so far as to say that Maher liked him "a lot more than people understand" and that he, too, appreciated Maher.
The trigger: The latest episode
Trump reacted after Friday's episode of "Real Time," in which the comedian defended having dinner with the president again, but also mocked his poll numbers, his statements and Republican candidates.
As for the polls, Trump wrote: "He said that I’m losing the support and approval of the Republican Party when, in fact, CNN just came out with a Poll showing that I’m at 98 and 99% support within the Republican Party, an All Time Record High. Ronald Reagan was at 86%."
In his post, Trump claimed that Maher seeks to please an audience hostile toward him and that he uses his personal access to the White House as material for his show. He also accused the host of misrepresenting the duration of the dinner, relying on "fake" polls, and attacking spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, whom Trump defended for her performance on the show.
"Karoline Leavitt was GREAT on the show, but she started with a biased, dumb SLEAZEBAG, asking questions. She defended me, and herself, so well, but couldn’t be comfortable going against Lie after Lie. Importantly, Bill lied about all of the Illegal Voters in the Radical controlled, decrepit, and devastated State of California."
A relationship marked by ambivalence
The history between Trump and Maher has never been simple. Maher has been one of the president's most persistent critics on television for years, but he has also been one of the few figures willing to acknowledge that the private Trump does not always match the caricature portrayed on left-wing talk shows.
After their first dinner in March 2025, hosted by Kid Rock and also attended by Dana White, Maher dedicated a monologue on "Real Time" to defending the meeting. He stated that they shared the view that "there’s got to be something better than hurling insults from 3,000 miles away" and described the president as "gracious and measured" He said that Trump "is much more self-aware than he lets on in public."
The truce, however, was short-lived. Maher returned to his show and resumed his usual tone. In last weekend's episode, he defended the meetings again: "Yeah, I did it again, b*tches… F*ck you. I like these dinners," and he insisted that "Trump never lost his temper. He never yelled. He never interrupted."
Maher defended the dinners but continued to mock Trump
According to Maher, during the dinner he raised issues such as the Supreme Court, incidents involving ICE, Afghans who collaborated with the United States, Starlink and China, and the role of Pete Hegseth, to whom he reportedly said, "is dragging you down, sir." He also criticized Trump's comments about Barack Obama and mocked candidates endorsed by the president, including Vivek Ramaswamy.
The comedian closed his monologue with a series of jokes about Trump's public compliments regarding other men's physiques. "I was there for dinner for four hours last week, and not a peep. Nothing," he said, drawing laughter from the audience.
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