Days after praising their White House dinner, President Trump tore into HBO host Bill Maher for telling viewers Trump’s poll numbers are sinking and Republicans are turning on him.
Story Highlights
- On Sunday night, October 25, Trump posted his longest Truth Social message ever, calling Maher a “COMPLETE AND TOTAL LOSER.”
- The post came after Maher’s Friday, October 23 show, where Trump says Maher claimed he has the lowest approval of any midterm candidate.
- Only nine days earlier, Trump had called their October 15 dinner “great” and “very informative.”
- Trump told Maher, “Don’t call anymore,” and said he would never watch his show again.
What Set Trump Off
Bill Maher hosts “Real Time,” a weekly political talk show on HBO. On his Friday, October 23 episode, he interviewed Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s former White House press secretary. In his post, Trump said Maher claimed the president has the “lowest approval rating of any midterm candidate ever” and that he is “losing the support and approval of the Republican Party.” Trump called those “fake polls” and said the Republican Party is with him.
Trump praised Leavitt, saying she “was GREAT on the show” and “defended me, and herself.” But he called Maher “a biased, dumb SLEAZEBAG” for the way he questioned her. Trump also said Maher’s show “always ends with dishonesty” and called it “a Low Rated Show on equally Low Rated HBO.”
From “Great Dinner” to “Waste of Time”
The two men had dinner at the White House on Thursday, October 15. It was their second dinner together. Also at the table were Kid Rock, the rock and country singer, and Stephen A. Smith, the ESPN sports commentator. The first dinner was in April 2025, set up by Kid Rock and Chuck LaBella, a producer on Maher’s show, according to Trump.
The day after the October 15 dinner, Trump told reporters, “It was a great dinner, it was a very informative dinner.” He said Maher “likes me a lot more than people understand, and I actually like him.”
His Sunday post told a very different story. “I learned nothing, and felt it was a waste of time,” Trump wrote. Maher and Smith have both said the dinner ran more than four hours. Trump wrote that “it didn’t last four hours, it lasted two hours, maybe less.” Smith has said Trump “did not run from any questions.”
The Harshest Lines in the Post
Trump made personal claims about Maher. He wrote that Maher “was drunk and had alcohol in his hand as he walked through the White House” and that “he looked like hell this time.” He called Maher “a major POTHEAD” and wrote, “He’s got to stop, it’s very bad for his health.” These are Trump’s claims.
Trump also pushed back on a joke from the show. “I am not building a swimming pool in the White House Briefing Room, and never had any intention of doing so,” he wrote. He signed off with, “You’re not transformative, you’re a Loser!”
Maher’s Side and the Reaction
Maher did not immediately respond to a request for comment, according to reports. On his Friday show, before the post, he had defended the dinners against his own liberal critics. He said “Trump was gracious and measured” and that he was only reporting what he saw. He told his audience he likes the dinners because they let him tell the president things he will never read in an article.
On that same show, Maher argued that many young Americans are drawn to socialism partly because they resent the government benefits older Americans get, like Social Security and Medicare. The White House pointed questions back to the Truth Social post itself.
Sources:
townhall.com, thewrap.com, variety.com, usatoday.com, deadline.com, washingtonexaminer.com
