Bill Maher sees President Donald Trump as king. So why wouldn’t he kiss the ring?
The comedian referred to the president as the one who wears the crown, defending his visit to His Majesty’s White House and saying he should be considered a “hero” for going there at all.
“We’re slowly becoming just much more of a monarchy, but you don’t want to talk to the king?” he said on a new episode of TMZ’s 2 Angry Men podcast. “You don’t even want to talk to him? That’s going to fix anything?”
Maher, who had dinner with Trump at the White House late last month, said he should be heralded for making the trip.
“I should be a hero for going there and doing those things and saying those things to the president,” Maher said. “I’m not the villain here.”
Maher and Trump have poked fun at each other throughout the years, and the television host has frequently roasted the president’s power grabs—including by comparing him to dictator Kim Jong Un and saying he would “vote for Biden’s head in a jar of blue liquid versus Donald Trump” in a hypothetical rematch election.
But in the last few weeks, he has had nothing but nice things to say about the president. Maher said his meeting with the president was an attempt at civil discourse rather than “hurling insults from 3,000 miles away” and said he found Trump to be “gracious and measured.”
Maher has previously sparked backlash from viewers for his willingness to engage with conservatives and criticize “woke” progressives. But the comedian has been patting himself on the back in the weeks since he met Trump, saying he was able to “speak truth to power” to his new friend.
“Do I have great hopes that saying anything to him is going to change anything?” he said. “No. But you have to try. Again, as opposed to what? Not engaging? The Democrats—you lost everything. You have no power. You have nothing.”
Maher also poked fun at Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is considered to be one of the 2028 Democratic contenders for president. She went viral last week for blocking her face with binders to distance herself from a recent Oval Office appearance alongside Donald Trump.
“I mean there’s two ways you can do the Oval Office,” he said. “The way I did it—honestly—or like Gretchen Whitmer.”
Maher said that Trump is surrounded by people who “kiss his a–” and he said he didn’t shy away from hitting Trump hard during his visit.
But he still made light of their feud by asking Trump to sign a list of the insults he’s said to him, including “stupid, dummy, low life, sleaze bag, sick, sad, stoned, cold, crazy” and more. He said the president signed it “with good humor.”
In the first episode of his HBO late-night show Real Time since the visit, Maher said he was watching 60 Minutes after their dinner and saw Trump ranting as he typically does. “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?’” he recalled.
He then added, “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. It’s just not as f—ed up as I thought it was.”
While some MAGA-lovers celebrated Maher’s efforts to find common ground, other Republicans were repulsed.
Former GOP Illinois Congressman—and #NeverTrump critic—Joe Walsh wrote on X that Maher thinks “much too highly” of himself and sounds “super naive.”
Oh @billmaher, you think much too highly of yourself to think anyone would “hate” you for having dinner with Trump. But you do sound super naive. So Trump, the man who lies as he breathes, the man who tried to overthrow an American election, the man who purposely spreads cruelty… https://t.co/wmrFnvJVXt
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) April 12, 2025
“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…that man is sort of ‘gracious & measured’ in private?” Walsh posted. “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.”
He continued, “Shame on you Bill. All you did was normalize him. Maybe that’s good for your ratings, but it’s bad for the country.”
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