Bill Maher defended his decision to dine with President Donald Trump again despite their frequent clashes, admitting that he “like[s] these dinners.”
“It’s just a little odd that Trump keeps gushing about men’s bodies and how handsome they are, and their jawlines, and their asses, their physiques. I’m a little hurt,” he said during his “Real Time” monologue Friday evening. “I was there for dinner for four hours last week. Not a peep.”
“Yeah, I did it again, bitches. I know, I’m the bad guy because I go and say face-to-face to the man the things you write in articles that he’ll never read,” Maher continued. “You know what? F–k you. I like these dinners.”
As Maher went on, he noted that there was “something thrilling about being announced when you’re in the White House,” joking that he was called the president’ “7 o’clock low ratings dummy” appointment.
“But the dinner went on for four hours, slightly longer than the press secretary hired last week,” he said. “I met her. She seems nice. I feel bad for her. They threw her in the deep end, but still, I lasted longer on prom night.”
Per Maher, the dinner was lengthy due to the fact that he had “a lot to bitch about.”
“We talked about a lot of things: Supreme Court, ICE shootings, pulling SkyLink down, abandoning the Afghans who helped us during the war,” Maher shared. “Hegseth is dragging you down, sir. You know, I mean, when you say Obama’s not a centrist, your racism is showing. Please don’t name the ocean after yourself. What else?”
Maher confessed that he also advised Trump that Chinese President Xi Jinping was not his “friend” and that the Reflecting Pool “looked like s–t.”
Maher then reflected on how Trump treated him at the dinner, noting that “if anyone lacked etiquette at that dinner, it was [him.]”
“I brought Stephen A. Smith. He was perfect, on point. I give myself an A+ for choosing him. But me. Trump never lost his temper. He never yelled. He never interrupted me. I did,” he said. “I could not have been treated better if I was Russian.”
Maher and Trump’s relationship has been notably tense over the years, despite the two sitting down for a friendly dinner in March 2025. The pair’s ceasefire was short-lived, as, a year later, the two began exchanging jabs once more.
Specifically, during a March broadcast of “Real Time,” Maher famously railed against the president for suggesting he had “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
“Someone has to help Donald Trump understand that I don’t suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. He suffers from Bill Maher Derangement Syndrome,” Maher said at the time. “I will not consider the dinner ‘a waste of time,’ even as I now see we’re back to name calling and that I have some new ones like, ‘highly overrated lightweight’ to add to the list you signed.”
Meanwhile, the president has previously claimed that Maher’s show has “low ratings” and uses a “fake laughing machine.”
“Real Time With Bill Maher” airs new episodes Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO.
The post Bill Maher Shrugs Off Criticism For Meeting With Trump Again: ‘I Like These Dinners’ appeared first on TheWrap.
