What To Know
- Bill Maher stopped making personal jokes about Donald Trump after the President confronted him during a White House meeting about a past remark.
- Maher explained that he now focuses on policy criticism rather than personal attacks, believing this approach helps bridge political divides.
- Despite occasional disagreements and critical segments, Maher and Trump remain in contact and their relationship has not ended on bad terms.
Real Time host Bill Maher has revealed he stopped making personal digs at Donald Trump after the President invited him to the White House earlier this year for a one-on-one meeting.
Speaking to Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, on the latest episode of his Club Random podcast, Maher recalled how the President took him aside during his visit to the Oval Office and “yelled” at him for an old joke in which the HBO star compared Trump to an orangutan.
“We went into the little merch room after the Oval Office. And he started yelling at me about the bit I did many years ago about the orangutan,” Maher said, per The Wrap. “And I did not say ‘sorry’ because it was a [satirical] response to his demanding [Barack] Obama’s birth certificate, which I thought was wrong and racist and not cool.”
Maher said Trump “absolutely accepted that.” At the same time, the comedian noted that he admitted to having “taken some cheap shots” at the President over the years. “I have, and that’s not necessary,” he added.
“Since then, no jokes about his weight, no jokes about his hair, his makeup, Melania [Trump]. I have enough on my plate with the policy,” Maher continued. “I don’t have to go there. So, I thought like, you know, this is how people bridge. You make a little thing here, I make a little move this way. It doesn’t hurt me, it doesn’t hurt you.”
Despite ending the White House meeting on good terms, Maher revealed that Trump recently texted him, complaining about a segment on Real Time.
“I would not betray any private confidence I’ve had with him, but I don’t think this is very personal, but he texted me a few weeks ago, yelling at me,” Maher stated. “He’s yelling at me about how ‘I guess you forgot our dinner’ and you know, ‘You’ve been captured by the lunatic left.’”
Maher said he wrote back to the President, saying, “‘How could I forget about our dinner? The people who hate me for it never let me forget it, one f***ing day. So I could not have forgotten about it. But you know what? I’m not going to stop doing my job.’ And, you know, he gets it. At least for me he does.”
Even though Trump didn’t like what he saw on Real Time, Maher confirmed the pair are still text buddies. “It did not end nasty or ‘I’m cutting you off,’” he added.
Elsewhere in the episode, Lara, the former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, told Maher she appreciated his meeting with her father-in-law and telling the world “he’s not a total lunatic like everybody wants to report… I think it’s great, I’m so happy you did that.”
When Lara asked what could be done to bridge the gap between those on the left and those on the right, Maher replied, “Don’t do things like call a woman, ‘piggy,’” referring to Trump’s insult towards a Bloomberg reporter aboard Air Force One.
“Do we know that happened?” Lara responded.
“I saw it on tape,” Maher retorted.
While Lara didn’t respond further to the “piggy” remarks, she did later confess, “Donald Trump is not perfect… but he does a lot of things that I think are great.”