- Bill Maher attended private dinner at The White House
- It was organized by mutual friend and rock star Kid Rock
- “A crazy person doesn’t live in the White House” – Maher
Comedian Bill Maher has made some surprising comments about Donald Trump after attending a private dinner at the White House with the President.
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The longtime critic of Trump, who once claimed the President’s father was an orangutan, was invited by their mutual friend, the musician and Republican Kid Rock. He said he accepted the invite “because we share a belief that there’s gotta be something better than hurling insults at each other from 3,000 miles away”.
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Maher took a moment to reflect on his visit during his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher. He joked to the audience that his takeaways may cause “liberal sphincters” to tighten, before delivering a lengthy monologue.
He made his thoughts known on the people who suggested the dinner was a summit meeting, calling them “ridiculous”. He added “Like I was gonna sign a treaty or something? I’m a f****** comedian, I have no power! He’s the most powerful leader in the world, I’m not the leader of anything”.
Trump was “gracious and measured”
The comedian, 69, stated that he found the President to be “gracious and measured” and added “why he isn’t that in other settings, I don’t know and I can’t answer and it’s not my place to answer. I’m just telling you what I saw and I wasn’t high.”
The liberal host admitted that he criticized Trump during dinner for ending the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran. However, he said the President just “took it in” and “didn’t get mad or call me a left-wing lunatic.”
Maher also shared his disbelief at witnessing Trump laughing. “I’d never seen him laugh in public. But he does – including at himself – and it’s not fake. Believe me, as a comedian of forty years, I know a fake laugh when I hear it.”
Trump has fired back at Maher’s comments about him over the past decade, calling him all kinds of insulting names, so Maher saw an opportunity.
“Before I left for the capital, I had my staff gather and print out a list of almost 60 different insults the president had said about me,” Maher explained. “I brought it to the White House, hoping he’d sign it – and he did, with good humor,” he says, holding up the signed piece of paper.
Bill Maher says “A crazy person doesn’t live in the White House”
He praised Trump for making him “feel comfortable” with talking candidly about any subject, stating “I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him.”
He told Trump that they actually agreed on several issues, like immigration, improving police morale, keeping transgender people out of women’s sports, and other ideas.
“Mostly he steered the conversation to ‘what do you think about this?’ I know. Your mind is blown. So is mine,” Maher said to the audience laughter and a round of applause.
Maher downplayed Trump’s wild side, saying “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***** up. It’s just not as f***** up as I thought it was”.
He said that he believes that the pair will likely go back to insulting each other, joking about Trump starting “a new list”.
But he added, “I get it. It doesn’t matter who he is at a private dinner with a comedian. It matters who he is on the world stage. I’m just taking it as a positive that this person exists. Because everything I’ve ever not liked about him was – I swear to God – absent.”
Overall, he said Trump gave him a “generous amount of time” and showcased “a willingness to listen and accept me as a possible friend even though I’m not MAGA”, which he said “was the point of the dinner”.
Other dinner attendees were the CEO of UFC Dana White and rockstar and organizer of the meeting, Kid Rock.
You can watch Maher’s full monologue in the video below.
