Agitating for consideration, Trump and Bill Maher go at it once more

Soaring fuel costs and a battle with Iran. Historically low approval scores. A possible blue tsunami. A brand new rape allegation.

President Trump has loads on his plate, and so too does the nation. Sunday, he took to Truth Social to handle the individuals.

“Let’s speak about this COMPLETE AND TOTAL LOSER, Bill Maher,” the president wrote on the prime of his longest post ever.

A hearth chat it was not.

The 1,300-word-plus screed was triggered by Friday’s episode of “Real Time With Bill Maher,” a mainstay on HBO since 2003. The comic referred to Trump as a “lame duck” president with low approval scores throughout a section together with his visitor, former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Trump, 80, seemingly anticipated reward from his fellow curmudgeon Maher, 70, because the males had not too long ago dined collectively on the White House. It was their second such date following a controversial get-together in March 2025, which Maher juiced for all it was price in an effort to face out from his fellow late-night hosts.

Maher’s chummy relationship with Trump has made him an outlier amongst his friends, lots of whom have been within the president’s crosshairs.

CBS canceled Stephen Colbert’s show after a long time on the air following stress from Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chair. Trump has bitterly complained about being handled unfairly by Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers. They, too, now have targets on their backs.

Maher has averted the identical destiny by railing on Trump solely half as a lot as his late-night friends, leaning into numerous MAGA grievances concerning the “woke” left and forging a fair-weather friendship with the second-term president.

If the Maher of 2003 might see himself now, he’d seemingly dedicate a searing monologue to the hypocrisy. The host was as soon as positioned as an irreverent comic whose political satire was guided by his no-BS tackle Capitol Hill and American tradition. Common sense over occasion fealty. Political correctness be damned.

But because the political panorama has shifted, so too has Maher’s method.

Now he performs the function of a staunchly nonpartisan crank on TV whereas eating with the president in particular person.

“Yeah, I did it once more, b—!” Maher stated to his viewers Friday. “I do know. I’m the dangerous man as a result of I am going and say face-to-face to the person the belongings you write in articles that he’ll by no means learn, however OK. You know what? F— you. I like these dinners.”

So courageous. So calculated.

Maher was dipping again into the eye he obtained in 2025, when he first dined with Trump and described the president as “gracious and measured.”

Their rendezvous was simply the form of factor the comic would have mercilessly lampooned if he wasn’t in actual fact a part of the joke. Fellow comedians akin to Patton Oswalt have criticized the HBO host for placating Trump, whereas Larry David satirized Maher’s first date with the president in a New York Times essay titled “My Dinner With Adolf.”

The controversy was a boon for “Real Time,” boosting its waning relevance by placing Maher again within the information and reinforcing the drained charade that his fearlessness is aware of no bounds.

This week’s public skirmish was a repeat efficiency, if not a considerably pathetic show of each males’s have to agitate for consideration.

Maher advised his viewers on Friday’s episode that he spoke with the president about lethal ICE incidents, Ukraine and the way Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was “dragging” Trump down. In closing, he assured the viewers he was no pushover by poking on the president’s latest favorable dealings with Russia (a diesel deal, lifting sanctions), then saying, “I couldn’t have been handled higher if I used to be Russian.”

Given the president’s delicate psyche, Maher knew something in need of absolute reward can be perceived as an insult. As for the knock about Trump’s slumping approval numbers? A certain set off.

In Sunday’s Truth Social manifesto, Trump referred to Maher as a “biased, dumb SLEAZEBAG” whose program is tormented by low scores. The president additionally alleged that the comic was drunk and had a drink in hand as he toured the White House on Oct. 15, and that Maher is a “main POTHEAD” who “appeared like hell this time.”

So a lot for Trump’s preliminary feedback about their assembly. He had advised reporters that it was “an incredible dinner.”

“Bill Maher, I inform you what, he likes me much more than individuals perceive,” Trump stated. “And I truly like him.”

Not not like Trump, Maher additionally enjoys reward, and blames the “woke left” when he doesn’t get it.

The usually smug host appeared upset earlier this yr on the Golden Globes when presenter Wanda Sykes roasted him and one other nominee up for greatest efficiency in stand-up comedy on tv, Ricky Gervais.

“There’s some individuals pissed off {that a} queer Black lady is up right here doing the job of two mediocre white guys,” Sykes stated. “… But first, I wish to give them some love.” Addressing Maher instantly, she stated, “You give us a lot. But I might love rather less. Just attempt much less.” The digicam panned to a stone-faced Maher, who appeared “butthurt” (a time period he likes utilizing to dismiss the gripes of parents he gripes about).

The bruised emotions didn’t cease there. Later, on Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, he vented about being handed over by Hollywood.

“I’ve been nominated for 33 Emmys, and they might by no means give it to me,” he advised his visitor Joel Edgerton. “I converse freely, and this woke city f— hates that. That’s OK. I’ve made my peace with that, so I understand how this goes.”

If Maher has been “soft-canceled” by the business, as he claims, then Hollywood has a humorous manner of displaying its disdain: HBO renewed “Real Time” via 2028.

Perhaps he discovered from his frenemy Trump that grievance politics sells, and it’s time to money in.