On Friday’s episode of Real Time, host Bill Maher opened up about a surprising meeting he had last week with former President Donald Trump at the White House. Maher said the encounter was far more cordial and humorous than he ever anticipated.
“You can hate me for it, but I’m not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured,” Maher said. “And why 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.”
Maher poked fun at the media frenzy surrounding the meeting, joking that people acted like it was “some kind of summit” arranged by their mutual acquaintance, Kid Rock. He found the hype around it “ridiculous.”
“I have no power. I’m a f—ing comedian, and he’s the most powerful leader in the world!” Maher exclaimed. “I’m not the leader of anything, except maybe a contingent of centrist-minded people who think there’s got to be a better way of running this country than hating each other every minute.”
During the meeting, Maher brought along a printout of Trump’s past insults directed at him. Surprisingly, Trump took it in stride and even signed it with what Maher described as “good humor.”
“And I know as I say that, millions of liberal sphincters just tightened. ‘Oh, my God, Bill, you gonna say something nice about him?’ What I’m gonna do is report exactly what happened,” Maher said, clarifying that he “didn’t go MAGA” and was under no pressure to do so.
Maher noted how stunned he was to see Trump laugh—really laugh—including at himself.
“And it’s not fake. Believe me, as a comedian of 40 years, I know a fake laugh when I hear it,” Maher said.
According to Maher, Trump also seemed “much more self-aware than he lets on in public.” When the 2020 election came up during their tour, Trump didn’t react angrily—even when Maher referenced Trump’s rare admission of having lost.
“Look, 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 as a positive that this person exists. Because everything I’ve ever not liked about him was, I swear to God, absent at least on this night with this guy,” Maher said.
Maher contrasted Trump’s demeanor with that of other prominent figures he’s met.
“I’ve had so many conversations with prominent people who are much less connected, people who don’t look you in the eye, people don’t really listen because they just want to get to their next thing… None of that was him, and he mostly steered the conversation to ‘What do you think about this?’ I know, your mind is blown. So is mine.”
He emphasized how relaxed he felt throughout the meeting.
“I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him,” he told his audience. “And honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump. That’s just how it went down. Make of it what you will. Me? I feel it’s emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days.”
One of the most bizarre moments for Maher came later that night when he turned on 60 Minutes and saw a clip of Trump at a rally.
“And I’m like, ‘Who’s that guy? What happened to Glinda the Good Witch?’” Maher quipped. “‘And why can’t we get the guy I met to the public guy?’ And I’m not saying it’s our responsibility to do that. It’s not. I’m just reporting exactly what I saw over two-and-a-half hours. I went into the mine, and that’s what’s down there.”
Reflecting on the experience, Maher said the Trump he met was nothing like the character he often sees on TV.
“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—ed up. It’s just not as f—ed up as I thought it was, and I have no illusions now that I’m back to work at my job, that he might start a new list,” Maher said, holding up Trump’s past jabs at him. “Because I don’t have a good feeling and will be critical about a lot of what he’s doing—the trade war and disappearing people, ruling by decree, threatening judges, gutting the government with glee.”
Even so, Maher believes Trump got the message that he’s just doing his job.
“But I also think he now understands I have a job to do, or at least he did on this night, because he said to me early on that he’d seen our last episode, which was the Friday before this dinner, and he said, ‘I thought maybe you’d be nice, but you hit me really hard.’ I did because I’m not going to pull my punches that presidents get to propose a third term for themselves. He understood that, and without animus, that doesn’t mean he’s not going to try to do it,” he continued.
Maher said he didn’t leave the White House with anything material—just some hats and a surprising amount of time and openness from Trump.
He recounted his favorite part of the evening: a shared moment between the two where they acknowledged hearing from people who appreciated their meeting and disapproved of those trying to prevent it.
“Don’t talk, as opposed to what? Writing the same editorial for the millionth time and making 25-hour speeches into the wind. Really, that’s what liberals have? He takes the piss out of everybody else, and we can hold ours?” Maher continued, poking fun at the long-winded floor speech recently made by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.
You can watch the clip above and catch new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher on Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO.
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